We Have An Idea - A Very

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.

This Is Part Of The Complexity Of Grief: A Piece Of You Recognizes It Is An Extreme State, An Altered State, Yet A Large Part Of You Is Entirely Subject To Its Demands.

The Truth Is, I Need To Experience My Mother's Presence In The World Around Me And Not Just In My Head.

It's All Too Easy When Talking About Female Gymnasts To Fall Into The Trap Of Infantilizing Them, Spending More Time Worrying More About Female Vulnerability Than We Do Celebrating Female Strength.

I Wasn't Prepared For The Fact That Grief Is So Unpredictable. It Wasn't Just Sadness, And It Wasn't Linear. Somehow I'd Thought That The First Days Would Be The Worst And Then It Would Get Steadily Better - Like Getting Over The Flu. That's Not How It Was.