Mourning the loss of a loved one can be an incredibly isolating experience. It’s easy to feel like no one can truly understand the depth and breadth of your grief. It can also be difficult to know what to say to someone dealing with the loss of a loved one. After all, what use are words when they can’t soothe the grief?
Jump ahead to these sections:
- 1 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
- 10 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
- Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
- Non-Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
- Condolence Quotes to Share With a Loved One on Their Sister’s Death Anniversary
Fortunately, artists and poets, and other great thinkers can help us find the right words when they’re seemingly out of our grasp. Whether you’re dealing with the loss yourself or want to comfort someone grieving, famous quotes about death can help you find the perfect words for a situation. Today, we’ll delve into memorable quotes involving the death of a sister that are ideal for a death anniversary.
1 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
Many people don’t realize from the outside that grief doesn’t diminish with time. It might become a little less oppressive in your day-to-day life, but significant events can bring it back into sharp relief. The first anniversary after the death of a loved one can be especially painful and raw. Finding the right words to say on a death anniversary can be challenging; These quotes may help.
1. “When someone we love dies, we get so busy mourning what died that we ignore what didn’t.” - Ram Dass
For many people, the first year after the death of a loved one is the most difficult. The sense of loss and grief is still so fresh and at the forefront of your mind and heart. Once that first anniversary passes, many people find it easier to remember the good things about the deceased instead of just focusing on the pain. A quote like this can help herald that shift in perspective.
2. “No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” - Terry Pratchett
We all encounter people that profoundly affect our lives. Close family members like sisters often have the most lasting impact on us. When you drop a rock into the water, it creates a disturbance in the surface in the form of concentric ripples that continue to spread long after the stone has sunk to the bottom. Similarly, your sibling will continue to impact your life and the lives of those around you long after they’re gone.
3. “Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.” - Arthur Schopenhauer
Sibling relationships aren’t always easy. They can frequently be fraught and complex. Even if you and your sister weren’t always the best of friends, it doesn’t mean her death won’t be painful. With some distance, you may find you have a new appreciation for certain aspects of a deceased sibling.
10 Year Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
Even after a significant amount of time has passed, the death of a sister can still feel so fresh. A milestone like a 10 year death anniversary can bring up feelings of grief as if the death just happened. These quotes deal with that unique situation.
4. “The harder the pain, the longer the path to recovery, the better the opportunity to learn.” - Maxime Lagacé
Grief is not a linear progression. Over the course of a decade, you will have to navigate your own individual journey of mourning. On this milestone event, look back at how far you’ve come and how much you’ve grown from your pain.
5. “They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and a second time, a bit later on, when someone says your name for the last time.” - Banksy
This quote is a new take on a popular sentiment — that our loved ones continue to live on as long as we remember them. It’s especially appropriate to use this quote on the tenth anniversary of a death, as it demonstrates the way you’re continuing to keep your sister’s memory alive.
6. “The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired.” - Robert Southey
After a serious injury, it takes some time for the pain to fade. Sometimes even after the pain is gone, a scar remains to remind you of what you’ve gone through. Loss is like that, too. Ten years after your sister has died, your day-to-day life will probably be mostly pain-free. But, as this quote shows, you will still be forever altered.
Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
If you’re a religious person, you may find comfort in the fact that you’ll be reunited with your lost loved ones in some kind of afterlife. Religiously-themed quotes like these may also bring a sense of peace to someone who is grieving.
7. “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he causes grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.” - Lamentations 3:31-33
The anniversary of a death can bring up complicated emotions, even if the loss occurred years ago. This quote serves to remind that grief ebbs and flows, but so do compassion and grace.
8. “On the air they rise and fly an invisible course, gathering nothing, storing nothing. Joyous and clear like the lake, still as the stone at the door, free from life and death.” - from The Dhammapada
The Dhammapada is a comprehensive collection of some of the most well-known Buddhist scriptures and sayings. This particular quote has a sense of lightness and optimism that many people will find soothing.
9. “When we are weary and in need of strength; we remember them. When we are lost and sick at heart; we remember them. When we have decisions that are difficult to make; we remember them. When we have joy we crave to share; we remember them.” - Kamens and Riemer
This quote is an excerpt from a poem written by Sylvan Kamens and Rabbi Jack Riemer. It’s not uncommon for this poem to be delivered in a synagogue as a back-and-forth exchange between rabbi and congregation.
Non-Religious Death Anniversary Quotes for a Sister
Faith is very personal, and it is not universal for people. While religious quotes may be comforting to some people during times of grief, they aren’t always appropriate. If you want to share a touching message with someone, and you aren’t familiar with their religious beliefs, you should look for meaningful secular quotes like these.
10. “Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one’s head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forget life, to be at peace.” - Oscar Wilde
Quotes that refer to an afterlife are typically religious in nature. However, this quote envisions a peaceful and pastoral afterlife oriented in nature and on Earth instead of aloft in heavenly clouds.
11. “There is love in holding and there is love in letting go.” - Elizabeth Berg
Berg is a novelist known for crafting thoughtful and meditative books that often deal with themes like love and loss. This quote is from her novel A Year of Pleasures, about a woman who seeks solace in ordinary living after a significant loss. While it’s important to remember our deceased loved ones, it’s also essential to keep living your own life and moving forward. This quote embodies that dichotomy.
12. “To die will be an awfully big adventure.” - J.M. Barrie
If your sister lived her life to the fullest and always seized the day, her death may feel even more unfair. This quote redefines the idea of death as a beginning instead of an ending without any religious allusions.
Condolence Quotes to Share With a Loved One on Their Sister’s Death Anniversary
It’s never easy to know what to say when someone is dealing with the death of a loved one. If you can’t find the words yourself, you can always turn to the words of gifted writers. These quotes are a great resource when you’re trying to convey condolence messages for the loss of a brother or sister.
13. “Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.” - Albert Einstein
If your loved one is mourning the death of their sister, this quote may bring comfort on the anniversary of her death. It’s especially poignant if that sister left children behind that carry her legacy.
14. “There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.” - Washington Irving
People can be very uncomfortable with death and grief. People often feel that they have to hide their pain away after enough time has elapsed. This quote grants your loved one permission to continue to grieve openly in your presence, which is a tremendous gift.
15. “You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly - that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.” - Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott is a novelist and nonfiction writer who has extensively explored themes of loss and grief in books throughout the years. This humane quote is perfect for sharing with someone struggling with grief because it permits them to be broken.
Using Famous Quotes To Bring Comfort After Death
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,146 words currently in use in the English language. But even with all those words at our disposal, it’s hard to know the right thing to say when someone is grieving.
Luckily, great writers and thinkers have tapped into ways to organize these simple words into something more meaningful. Whether you’re grieving the loss of a sister or want to comfort someone in your life who is in that situation, we hope these quotes will help bring peace.