When tragedy strikes someone you love, coming up with the right words to express your sympathy can be difficult. "There are so many different questions about what death means, what death is and how we should respond," Dr. Robin says.

If you want to truly be an angel in the life of someone who is grieving, Dr. Robin says you simply need to show up and offer what you can. "You need to show up with your open, tender and vulnerable heart," Dr. Robin says. Telling the person who is grieving how much you care about them or that you are thinking about them or praying for them are sincere things that Dr. Robin says you should say.

Calling someone or checking in on them in the days, weeks or months following a tragedy is something Dr. Robin says can be more powerful than sympathetic words. "Look around and you don't have to look far to see what home sorrow has visited that needs your special touch, it needs that smile, it needs that platter of food you bring," she says.