I am the indoctrinated child of two lapsed Irish Catholics. Which is to say: I am not religious.

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

But there is a discomfort that surrounds grief. It makes even the most well-intentioned people unsure of what to say. And so many of the freshly bereaved end up feeling even more alone.

If the condition of grief is nearly universal, its transactions are exquisitely personal.

Many Americans don't mourn in public anymore - we don't wear black, we don't beat our chests and wail.

'Hamlet' is a play about a man whose grief is deemed unseemly.

I am the indoctrinated child of two lapsed Irish Catholics. Which is to say: I am not religious.