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.

A death from a long illness is very different from a sudden death. It gives you time to say goodbye and time to adjust to the idea that the beloved will not be with you anymore.

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

Many researchers say the dominant emotion experienced after loss is yearning or searching. And while you might feel more anger early on, it's accompanied by a whole host of other feelings.

Our minds are mysterious; our conscious brain is like a ship on a sea that is obscure to us.

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

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