Counsellors hold the emotional weight. Funeral directors hold the day. Lawyers hold the estate.
Nobody walks you through the rest.
The phone calls. The paperwork. The forms you do not understand. The decisions you have never had to make. The conversations you have no language for.
What To Do When Someone Dies is the practical chronology of life after loss, broken into something you can actually do. One phone call. One form. One step at a time.
If someone you love has died, this is for you.
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This checklist was built for the person standing in the kitchen at 11pm, list in hand, with no idea where to start.Â
• The partner facing a household, a calendar, and a stack of accounts they did not manage.
• The adult child suddenly running the estate while still trying to be a sibling, a parent, a colleague.
• The parent who has lost a child and has been handed paperwork no parent should have to read.
• The sibling, the friend, the chosen family member doing the practical work because someone has to.
• The person preparing because someone they love is terminally ill, and they want to be ready.
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Grief is not a competition. Every loss counts. This checklist will not ask you to justify why you are reaching for it.
The checklist is a 23-page PDF organised in three stages. You do not have to work through it in order. You do not have to do it all.
You do what you can, when you can, and the rest waits.
Black = Crisis Mode
What absolutely must be done
• Notifying immediate family and arranging care for children and pets
• The official calls (doctor, funeral director)
• Locating wallets, documents, and emergency cash
• Protecting your energy so you can get through the day
Yellow = StabilisingÂ
What can wait until the first wave settles
• Funeral planning, with prompts for what to delegate
• Notifying banks, insurers, Centrelink, your employer
• Gathering essential documents (death certificate, will)
• Setting up the support around you so you are not doing this alone
Blue = RebuildingÂ
What comes next, at your pace
• Government notifications
• Estate, probate, and legal updates to your own affairs
• Digital accounts, subscriptions, and supporting children through grief
• Self-care, outsourcing, and the longer-term estate work that unfolds over the year ahead
In Ashleigh's words
I built this because I needed it.
I was 29 and 17 weeks pregnant with triplets when my husband died suddenly in an accident.
The grief was overwhelming. I expected that. What I did not expect was everything else. The phone calls I could barely speak through. The legal documents I did not understand. The financial decisions I had never imagined having to make. The endless paperwork, account changes, conversations I had no language for.
People around me loved me. They sent flowers. They cooked meals. They said the right things. But none of them had walked this. None of them could tell me what to actually do next.
So I figured it out. Phone call by phone call. Form by form. Day by day. I built myself a roadmap because nothing existed that resembled one.
This checklist is that roadmap. The one I wish someone had handed me.
What is on the other side of this checklist
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âś“Â Somewhere to put it all downÂ
Instead of carrying every call, form, and decision in your head, you have one place to look. One list to work from. One thing to do next.
âś“Â Built for grief brain.
Short steps. Plain language. Australian-specific phone numbers, agencies, and what to say when you call. Designed for the days you can barely think straight.
âś“Â Permission to do this your way
Work through it in order, or jump to the one thing that is on your mind tonight. Skip what is not relevant. Come back tomorrow. There is no behind in grief.
âś“ Yours immediately
Downloadable PDF, sent to your inbox the moment you buy. Print it, save it to your phone, keep it beside the kettle. It is yours to keep.
Get the checklist
A 23-page PDF. Three stages. Every task prioritised so you know what to do first and what can wait.
Instant download, Built by someone who has walked this.
If it does not help, you get your money back.
 If this checklist does not give you the clarity and direction you're looking for, just email us within 30 days and we'll refund you in full. No forms. No questions. You should not be paying for something that did not help.
What format is the checklist in?
I have already started some of these tasks. Is the checklist still useful?
My loved one is unwell but has not died yet. Is this still helpful?
I am not a widow. Is this still for me?
I am not in Australia. Will it still help?
I am not ready to look at this yet.
Is there ongoing support if I want more?
What if it does not help me?
You don't have to figure this out alone
Right now, every day without a roadmap is one more day of carrying everything in your head. This checklist is not going to take the grief away. Nothing can. But it will take some of the weight off the things that have to be done anyway, so you can put your energy where it actually matters.
