We all experience it in different ways and use varied methods to help us deal with it. Your grief is not my grief and mine is not yours. Mourning doesn’t become easier; it simply becomes a part of life.
My father died late last year. I am his first-born and I adored him. He taught me so much about life; practical skills that I still use to this day as well as behaviours that have served me well. I miss him every day.
When someone this important to me died – although we knew it was coming for most of a year – I felt diminished. This man, who had loved me unconditionally every day since I was born, was no longer here.
It’s unpredictable. Today the grief hit me with a punch. The bluebell bulbs that he had given me from his garden opened their blooms in my ground. My dad isn’t here to see them and never will be.
Somehow my memories of him aren’t enough to console me today. That’s one of the unforeseeable impacts of grief.