Grieving the Living: When They’re Still Here, But Not Really 🤷🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️
Grief is hard. Period. Whether it’s the loss of someone or something — physically, emotionally, spiritually — grief will stretch you in ways you didn’t know you could bend. And sometimes? It damn near breaks you. We’re taught to associate grief with funerals, with caskets, with permanent goodbyes. And yes — those losses are deep. I lost my father, and that pain? That ache? It’s one I carry with me daily. But as gutting as that was (and still is), there’s something different about that kind of loss. There’s a boundary. He’s gone. I know he’s not coming back. I can’t call him. I can’t talk my way into another moment. I’ve had to make peace with the finality of death. It’s a closed door I didn’t ask for, but I’ve learned how to sit at it with memory and love. But what do you do when the person you’re grieving is still alive? When you can still see them. Still call them. Still scroll past their Instagram stories or hear through mutuals what they’re doing. When you could reach out… but some...