Relationships take up energy; letting go of them, psychiatrists theorize, entails mental work. When you lose someone you were close to, you have to reassess your picture of the world and your place in it. The more your identity was wrapped up with the deceased, the more difficult the loss.

Faith does help mourners survive their loss, some studies suggest; but I imagine one still struggles.

Sometimes you don't even know what you want until you find out you can't have it.

The people we most love do become a physical part of us, ingrained in our synapses, in the pathways where memories are created.

One of the things about grief is that it can bring a deeper perspective into your life; in the end, it has, for me, though it's also brought sorrow.

Loss doesn't feel redeemable. But for me one consoling aspect is the recognition that, in this at least, none of us is different from anyone else: We all lose loved ones; we all face our own death.

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