This question presumes painful change. If one suddenly came into a 10 million dollar windfall, I don't think THEIR comfort (rather than MINE) would be the issue.
The overwhelming loss this question can imply does not lend itself to facile and painless advice at all. People then look for practical help, not pretty words. Yet as we suffer under stressful change, we do expect and find helpful comforting words.
First, we need to simply agree that the loss was great and signal that we share in that loss.
Perhaps the most honest thing to subtly relate is the most trite--"this too will pass". Ever major source of sorrow (such as a death in the family) though impossible to bear today will recede into history and the very best from the past will be honored and remembered in the days ahead.
Then I would simply explore a question needed to be broached with hesitancy and compassion--"in your own personal history have you not encountered painful change, but in retrospect have found the change a good thing?" Often change does not usher in a new reality so much as simply recognize what is true about the present one.
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