Side-splitting laughs at a gravesite aren’t a common sight for most, but for followers of the Rosenthal family on Instagram, antics like this are a regular occurrence.
Robin Rosenthal and her two kids, Sam and Emma, have taken an irreverent approach to grief, using humor and sarcasm in ways that are both honest and unexpected. Once a family of four, everything changed in 2010 when Robin’s husband, Mark, died suddenly from a heart attack. Since then, they’ve faced their grief with wit and irreverence — whether it’s Robin joking about needing an Ouija board to talk to Mark or sharing a laugh at his gravesite.
“Playing volleyball with Mark these days isn’t what it used to be,” Robin Rosenthal quips in one of the family’s most popular posts on Instagram. “He used to hit the ball back.”
This approach to dealing with their grief, the Rosenthals tell TODAY.com, helps keep Mark’s memory alive. For them, it’s another way to remind people that there are different ways to cope with loss.
“The cool thing about grief is our relationship with our loved one doesn’t end,” says Emma Rosenthal. “It’s just different now that they’re no longer with us.”
As the Rosenthals put it, they’ve found various ways to connect with Mark since his death. It just so happens that the cemetery where he was laid to rest is where they’ve made some great memories.
“People view cemeteries as sad places… We’ve flipped the script,” Sam Rosenthal explains. “We’re building new memories with our dad, who’s no longer here, but he is here. The cool thing about grief is, like, our relationship with our loved one doesn’t end. It’s just different now.”
Year after year, the family of three has found ways to stack playful twists onto how they’ve previously celebrated Mark’s life. Special occasions like the holidays aren’t overshadowed by their pain, they’re fun.
“Every Father’s Day, my dad’s birthday, the anniversary of his death, we go to the cemetery, and, you know, we have food for him. We brought Starbucks for him,” Emma Rosenthal explains. “We always coped with our grief with humor.”
Emma Rosenthal and Sam Rosenthal credit their mother and the family culture that Mark helped them all forge before his death. Robin Rosenthal recalls how, from the outset of his death, she plunged herself into helping her children cope with their loss.
“We did therapy, we did group therapy, we did everything,” Robin Rosenthal says. “I decided we were going to do whatever it took because I wasn’t going to let grief tear us apart. I put my heart and soul into these kids, and look how we’ve grown together.”
“Since (then) we think, ‘Okay, what other fun things can we do?’” Emma Rosenthal explains. “One of the biggest things we did as a family when Dad was alive was spend Father’s Day at the pool… so this year, we brought the pool party to Dad.”
Their irreverent celebrations of Mark’s life and their love for one another have included everything from picnics around his headstone to continuing traditions they shared when Mark was alive.
“It’s a happy place to us almost, where, you know, we kind of get to disconnect from the world and be the three of us and remember all the good times that we had with our dad,” Emma Rosenthal says.
Now, these good times aren’t just honoring Mark. They’re connecting the Rosenthals with a wider community online filled with people who know grief like theirs.
“So many people come up to us and say, ‘My mother died, my father died and thank you so much,’” Robin Rosenthal shares.
The Rosenthals’ way of processing death and celebrating life is a reminder of the power of humor and how it can bring warmth and light. Even on the hardest days.
