...as long as it takes

It seems that just when we thought we were through it to the other side, we get startled by some deeper, unexpressed grief. It is then as hard as in that first hour, yet the pain lingers moments shorter, as time and the grieving process both mysteriously go about their habits.

For Those Left Behind

No gentle deathbed parting, this death by suicide. Though most will one day get on with our lives with less difficulty than might be imagined, we survivors have also been handed a life sentence. We will move on and yet...

...Time does not heal,
It makes a half-stitched scar
That can be broken and again you feel
Grief as total as in its first hour.
--Elizabeth Jennings

Amidst the disbelief, suffering, and anguished questioning; amidst the terrible missing, the hole gashed in one's heart; amidst the agonizing guilt, a commitment to life must be made.

Look to the living, love them, and hold on.
--Douglas Dunn