Grief retreats offer physical and emoti

Grief retreats help people reconcile with loss at their own pace and tend to their mental health in spaces free of judgement

- Pooja Singh

Grief retreats offer different activities to promote integration of emotional, social and physical health.

It's a hazy Sunday morning. Disha Wadhwani is in her kitchen, baking a sugarless banana cake. It should be ready in the next 20 minutes—6.30am on the dot. Once done, she cuts two big slices, packs them in a box, and leaves her house. A 2km walk later, she arrives at her destination: a green bench in the middle of a park in a Gurugram neighbourhood. She sits and eats a cake slice while watching people on their morning walk.

"The second piece is for my Shibu," says Wadhwani, 39, an architect and a mother of two. Shibu, a street dog turned "youngest son" of the Wadhwani family, died at the age of 5 in September 2023, two months after Wadhwani's grandmother succumbed to cancer. "We were long prepared for dadi (grandmother); Shibu just didn't wake up one morning," says Wadhwani.

For Wadhwani and Shibu, 7am was set for daily morning walks. Sundays were fixed as Banana Cake Day. Both would sit together on the green bench, feasting on their cake slices while watching the world go by. "Those 15-20 minutes used to be our moment."