Like My Mother Before Me, I Have

Many Researchers Say The Dominant Emotion Experienced After Loss Is Yearning Or Searching. And While You Might Feel More Anger Early On, It's Accompanied By A Whole Host Of Other Feelings.

One Word I Had Throughout The First Year And A Half Of My Mother's Death Was 'unmoored.' I Felt That I Had No Anchor, That I Had No Home In The World.

Nothing Prepared Me For The Loss Of My Mother. Even Knowing That She Would Die Did Not Prepare Me.

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.

I Am The Indoctrinated Child Of Two Lapsed Irish Catholics. Which Is To Say: I Am Not Religious.