Death never pierces the heart so much as when it takes someone we love; cleaving the heart they held with their passing.

What is it like when you lose someone you love?" Jane asked. "You die, too. And you wait around for your body to catch up.

People can act so nice, bringing you food and all, but in the end they are nothing but buzzards. Waiting to pick your bones.

I have lived with you and loved you, and now you are gone. Gone where I cannot follow, until I have finished all of my days.

If you have ever lost a loved one, then you know exactly how it feels. And if you have not, then you cannot possibly imagine it.

I thought maybe we mourned not only for the dead but also for the living. We felt their absence before we knew for sure they were gone.

In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! we are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory.

It's easier to miss her at a cemetery, where she's never been anything but dead, than to miss her at all the places where she was alive.

Be sure that your praise songs are numbered higher than your sorrowful dirges and your utmost hope, firmer than your woeful regrets. Be positive.

Throw off your grief,' doubters imply, 'and we can all go back to pretending death doesn't exist, or at least is comfortably far away.

All that spring and summer, there were times when she felt as if she had no joints or muscles, no physical means with which to move about the world.

Until now I had been able only to grieve, not mourn. Grief was passive. Grief happened. Mourning, the act of dealing with grief, required attention.

Jack had been the love of her life and he was gone. It seemed now that there had never been bad times, though she knew that wasn’t true.


How can it be that there is such a colossal gap between what we think we know about grief and mourning and what we actually find out when it comes to us?

To whom can I put this question (with any hopes of an answer)? Does being able to live without someone you loved mean you loved her less than you thought... ?