Other forms: bereaved; bereaving; bereaves
The verb bereave is used when death takes someone away from you, depriving you of their presence. Overfeeding might bereave you of beloved goldfish.
Think of bereave as an old-fashioned verb that's much more likely to show up in the adjective bereaved these days. A year after you've been bereaved by the loss of your childhood dog, you may feel ready to think about a new puppy. This word comes from the Old English bereafian, "to take by violence, seize, or rob," which pretty much sums up how it feels to be bereaved.