gal

Yes. My dad died 14 months ago unexpectedly, and it has been terrible grief. He was my best friend and mentor. What I found shocking is the way that people would change and react. After I told my closest friend, she stopped calling then told me she didn't feel like seeing me. Then she was gone. We saw each other every week and talked everyday for 15 years, then she vanished. I have learned to let go of her. She declined to be there for me the way I was there for her when her father died. She acknowledges that is true. The loss that I didn't expect and can't find a way to let go of is my beautiful little brother. He was the joy of my life and my mother's life, the darling baby of the family. Happy, kind, appreciative of the love and devotion poured on him by his family. The story is long and ugly as he moved from one betrayal to the next, did things I didn't think him capable of. His wife was much worse, but I already had experienced her temper. I had no idea that other people also experience the systematic unraveling of death. Take out one essential person and whole lives collapse.