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Keep the door to her life open. Edith Hickman
When does
the grieving end? The honest answer is that it never completely ends. There will always be sadness and we will never forget,
nor would we want to forget a life so dear to us; but the devastating emotions of new grief do become less intense over time.
Please visit I'm Grieving as Fast as I Can for my thoughts on the absurd notion of closure.
I have read that we know we are healing
when we think about our loved one's life more than the circumstances surrounding the death. Another turning point in grief
healing is when the memories of our loved one bring more comfort than pain. A part of us dies when a loved one dies—the
life we shared is gone. But if we allow ourselves to feel the raw ferocity of grief, we will find one day that our loved one
lives on in the life we create after loss.
From Healing After Loss by Martha Whitmore Hickman, January
15 entry:
Though the loved one has died, the memory, the sense of the person's presence,
has not--nor the possibility, after a while, of taking continuing joy not only from the reminiscences of the past, but in
the extension of the person's spirit into our ongoing lives.
Into the nebulous, ongoing mystery of life I welcome,
as if through an open door, the continuing spirit of the one I have loved.
Go to next
page: Shadow Grief
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