What had happened still seemed implausible. A person was present your entire life, and then one day she disappeared and never came back. It resisted belief.

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.

My whole life, I had been taught to read and study, to seek understanding in knowledge of history, of cultures.

There is always tension in women's gymnastics between athleticism, grace, performance, and eros.

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.

And after my mother's death I became more open to and empathetic about other people's struggles and losses.

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