Monday, September 26, 2005

From an article yesterday's NY Times by Joan Didion. "Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it. We anticipate (we know) that someone close to us could die, but we do not look beyond the few days or weeks that immediately follow such an imagined death. We misconstrue the nature of even those few days or weeks. We might expect if the death is sudden to feel shock. We do not expect this shock to be obliterative, dislocating to both body and mind. We might expect that we will be prostrate, inconsolable, crazy with loss. We do not expect to be literally crazy, cool customers who believe that their husband is about to return. In the version of grief we imagine, the model will be "healing." A certain forward movement will prevail. The worst days will be the earliest days. We imagine that the moment to most severely test us will be the funeral, after which this hypothetical healing will take place." There are many images and experiences in her article that perfectly describe the experience and feelings that one goes through after the loss of a spouse. I wish I could write so I could describe these feelings. I have linked to the article but I'm sure that it will go behind the PayWall soon and become inaccessible and lost to those who might gain some comfort and insight from reading it. I will never understand the desire by those who publish to prevent people from reading/listening/seeing those things. 11:33:56 AM

© Copyright 2006 Rod Kratochwill.