A Mother Is Beyond Any Notion Of

Funerals Cost So Much Money, And Are Likely To Be An Additional Source Of Stress In This Recession - It's Sad That We Don't Have A More Humane, Less Commercialized Way To Approach Burial.

While I Did A Lot Of Research, I Ended Up Feeling That The Best Way To Write About Grief Was To Describe It From The Inside Out - The Show The Strange Intensities That Come Along With It, The Peculiar Thoughts, The Longing For That Past - All The Strange Moments Of Thinking You Glimpse The Dead Person On The Street, Or In Your Dreams.

I Was Not Raised With Religion, And I Had No Faith Before My Mother Died. On The Other Hand, When She Died, I Did Not Immediately Feel She Was "gone." I Don't Believe She Is In Something Like Heaven, But I Also Feel That We Don't Understand Much About The Nature Of The Universe. So I Hold On To That Uncertainty, At Times.

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.

Faith Does Help Mourners Survive Their Loss, Some Studies Suggest; But I Imagine One Still Struggles.