In addition to all of the other good information that has been posted for you, I would like to add one additional reference that I found to be most helpful when my mother died of cancer. At the time my father worked on the maintenance staff in a private mental hospital. I gave a copy of "How To Survive The Loss Of A Love" to him to read as well as reading it myself. When he returned to work, one of the mental health nurses asked him if he was reading anything to help him deal with his wife's death. He told her about the book that I had given him. She said that it was the best book on the market and was the one that she recommended to everyone.
The book was written by 3 people who by training are a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a poet. Together they bring to the table recommendations for the mental, physical and emotional stress that such a loss puts us through. The poet puts it into simple easy to understand lanquage. This is not a book of poetry, the poet is just able to boil the complex psycho stuff into simple easy to understand lanquage.
The book is not to replace the success that you can enjoy with your SF course work, but is I believe a valuable supplement.
