June 19, 2023
“f you’ve got to my age, you’ve probably had your heart broken many times. So it’s not that difficult to unpack a bit of grief from some little corner of your heart and cry over it.”
– Emma Thompson
Loss is part of life, it’s part of all our lives. Saying goodbye is always difficult, even in the most basic encounters and situations … whether it’s leaving behind your childhood home, saying goodbye to the town where you were raised, retiring from a job that was your life, graduating from your high school, saying goodbye to friends, seeing a romance end that you thought would last forever, or experiencing the death of a beloved pet.
Then, there’s the loss we endure when a family member or friend dies, and that loss is unlike any other.
It takes time to get over it, and somehow you realize things will never be the same. The memories, good and bad, will be with you forever, and they will be rekindled when you least expect them … and often when you’re least prepared to deal with them.
The death of a loved one is considerably hard. There’s not a universal playbook that we can follow that will lead us to healing. In one sense, everyone’s grief is the same, and in another sense everyone’s grief is uniquely different.
The loss that comes from death is a debilitating loss. Yes, loss is part of life. We leave behind people, places and things, and in return we find sadness, melancholy, regret and longing. The one certainty is that your life will never be the same.
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Don’t underestimate the pain you’re feeling because this can be a very tough road.