Whether following a long illness, or a sudden death, the loss of a loved one is never easy. Grief is painful, individual process. There is no right or wrong way to grieve. This topic deserves a much longer discussion (which will be added later), but I wanted to share this poem that someone sent me that speaks so well of how many experience grief.

I had my own notion of grief
I thought it was the sad time that followed the death of someone you loved
And I thought you had to push through it to get to the other side.
There is no other side
There is no pushing through but rather, there is absorption, adjustment and acceptance.
And grief is not something you complete but rather you endure
Grief is not a task to finish and move on,
But an element of yourself.
An alteration of yourself
An alteration of your being.
A new way of being.
A new way of seeking.
A new definition of self.

-author unknown