Nothing prepared me for the loss of my mother. Even knowing that she would die did not prepare me.

It's all too easy when talking about female gymnasts to fall into the trap of infantilizing them, spending more time worrying more about female vulnerability than we do celebrating female strength.

A mother is beyond any notion of a beginning. That's what makes her a mother.

Many grievers experience intense yearning or longing after a death - more than they experience, say, denial.

One of the ideas I've clung to most of my life is that if I just try hard enough it will work out.

This is part of the complexity of grief: A piece of you recognizes it is an extreme state, an altered state, yet a large part of you is entirely subject to its demands.

While I did a lot of research, I ended up feeling that the best way to write about grief was to describe it from the inside out - the show the strange intensities that come along with it, the peculiar thoughts, the longing for that past - all the strange moments of thinking you glimpse the dead person on the street, or in your dreams.