You’ve survived a year without your loved one, but without a doubt, it hasn’t been easy. Within the last year, you faced many significant anniversaries — your loved one’s birthday. Wedding anniversaries and holidays. You also may dread the anniversary of your loved one’s death.
Jump ahead to these sections:
- Death Anniversary Quotes for Parents
- Death Anniversary Quotes for Grandparents
- Death Anniversary Quotes for Siblings
- Death Anniversary Quotes for Spouses or Partners
- Death Anniversary Quotes for Friends
- Death Anniversary Quotes for Children
Read through some quotes that may help you face the day. You may want to share them with others grieving the same loss. Some choose to post quotes online to let others know how they are feeling.
Read through some death anniversary quotes for those missing parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses, friends, and children. We know none of these words will take away your grief, but they may help you realize that you don’t grieve alone.
Death Anniversary Quotes for Parents
Have you lost your mom or dad within the last year? You may be feeling especially lost if that was your last surviving parent. Here are some quotes about grief and loss.
1. “Sometimes I just look up, smile, and say ‘I know that was you.’” — Unknown
If you have lost someone you love, you have probably had this experience more than once.
2. “The dead never truly die. They simply change form.” — Suzy Kassem
Instead of thinking about your missing mom or dad as dead and gone, think about how your parent’s spirit surrounds you.
3. “To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.” — Thomas Campbell
Hopefully, you receive comfort in knowing that your loved ones will always stay in your heart.
4. “Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.” — George Eliot
George Eliot was a female Victorian writer who used a male name to publish her works.
5. “So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.” — John 16:22
Believers will find comfort in the promise of salvation.
Death Anniversary Quotes for Grandparents
Even if your grandma or grandpa had a good, long life, nothing prepares us to say goodbye to those we love. Expected deaths aren’t any easier than those that come after a long illness. These quotes may comfort you as you face the death anniversary of your grandparent.
6. “If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them.” — James O’Barr
If your children or grandchildren were never able to have a personal relationship with your grandparents, write down your memories of those individuals. At one point in their lives, they may want to know about your grandparents’ personalities, especially when they have kids of their own.
7. “No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away.” — Terry Pratchett
A person’s “ripples” will disappear when people stop talking about them. Keep your loved one’s memories alive by sharing stories.
8. “While we are mourning the loss of our friend, others are rejoicing to meet him behind the veil.” — John Taylor
You may smile knowing that your grandparents can now see lost parents, children, and other family members.
9. “When a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him, lies on the paths of men.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Was your grandparent a leader in your community and family? His legacy will live on.
Death Anniversary Quotes for Siblings
Losing a sibling can feel extremely difficult. You may want to post these quotes on social media to let others know that your sibling still lives in your heart.
10. “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That signifies nothing. For us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” — Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein died at the age of 76.
11. “If there is ever a day where we aren’t together, keep me inside your heart, and I’ll be there forever.” — A.A. Milne
A.A. Milne was the writer of the “Winnie the Pooh” books.
12. “She was no longer wrestling with the grief, but could sit down with it as a lasting companion and make it a sharer in her thoughts.” — George Eliot
The death of your loved one will forever alter who you are. Instead of getting rid of your grief, think about it being an integral part of your life.
13. “Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it.”— Haruki Murakami
If you think about your loved one’s spirit living on after her physical body dies, you will appreciate this quote.
14. “They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity. Death cannot kill what never dies.” — William Penn
This thought may give you comfort as the death anniversary of your loved one approaches.
Death Anniversary Quotes for Spouses or Partners
Saying goodbye to your spouse or partner may have been one of the hardest things you have ever had to do.
15. “Death — the last sleep? No, it is the final awakening.” — Sir Walter Scott
Winston Churchill asked that the “Reverie” be played at the end of his funeral service because he anticipated his next big adventure. Thinking about death in this way may give you solace.
16. “Say not in grief that they are gone, but give thanks that they were yours.” — Hebrew Proverb
You can find many famous quotes about death with similar meanings.
17. “The death of a beloved is an amputation.” — C.S. Lewis
“Narnia” author C.S. Lewis wrote about the grief he experienced upon the death of his spouse.
18. “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” — Jack Lemmon
Just because your loved one has died doesn’t mean that your relationship is over.
Death Anniversary Quotes for Friends
Are you mourning the loss of a friend or companion? Here are some quotes about grief in this form.
19. “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” — Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson wrote quite a bit about death in the afterlife in her poems that were published posthumously.
20. “In the gardens of memory, the palaces of dreams, this is where we will meet.” — Lewis Carroll
Lewis Caroll was the author of the “Alice in Wonderland” books.
21. “What we have once enjoyed we can never lose; all that we deeply love becomes a part of us.” — Helen Keller
Your friend, no matter how briefly they were a part of your life, is a part of you.
22. “Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.” — Arthur Schopenhauer
How sad it is that we don’t appreciate some people or things until they are gone.
23. “When someone you love becomes a memory, the memory becomes a treasure.” — Unknown
What memories do you treasure?
Death Anniversary Quotes for Children
Those who have lost children say that the resulting grief is like no other they experienced. Here are some quotes to consider as you approach the death anniversary of your child.
24. “It’s like the grief has been covered over with some kind of blanket. It’s still there, but the sharpest edges are... muffled, sort of. Then, every now and then, I lift the corner of the blanket just to check, and... whoa! Like a knife! I’m not sure that will ever change.” — Anne Tyler
Don’t be forced into a timeline for your grief. It occurs differently for each person.
25. “Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul, there is no such thing as separation.” — Rumi
You may feel connected to your child in spirit even though they are no longer a part of this world.
26. “Long after her death I felt her thoughts floating through mine.” — Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov was the Russin novelist who gained acclaim from writing “Lolita.”
27. “The life of the dead is placed in the heart of the living.” — Cicero
Keep the memory of your child alive by sharing stories and performing acts of service in your child’s name.
28. “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.” — Irish saying
This often-quoted saying describes grief succinctly.
Make Plans for a Difficult Day
As you approach your loved one’s death anniversary, plan how you will spend the day. Some families create traditions on death anniversaries and gather together each year to share memories. Others choose to spend the day alone, reflecting on their thoughts by looking at photographs.
Regardless of how you spend the day, you may find it beneficial to make plans. Trying to go on with everyday life, especially if it is the first anniversary of your loved one’s death, may pose more of a challenge than you might have imagined.