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.

My mother died of metastatic colorectal cancer shortly before three P.M. on Christmas Day of 2008. I don't know the exact time of her death, because none of us thought to look at a clock for a while after she stopped breathing.

The truth is, I need to experience my mother's presence in the world around me and not just in my head.

Grief is characterized much more by waves of feeling that lessen and reoccur, it's less like stages and more like different states of feeling.

It's a blessing not to be alone in your grief but it's also painful to see your parents and siblings in pain.

Loss is so paradoxical: It is at once enormous and tiny.

I'm not much like my mother; that role falls to my brothers, who have more of her blithe and freewheeling spirit.