About sorrow and consolation

I have known many images of grief throughout my life. Not only because of the death of family members and friends, but also because of the feelings of loss that accompany the life changes we all face, and which are unavoidable. In the midst of my struggles to explore this mixture of overwhelming emotions that accompany grief, I found myself endlessly grateful for the work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, especially in this book, which she co-authored with David Kessler. We are a nation ignorant of grief, and Kubler-Ross dedicated her life to helping people reconcile with difficult losses. She allowed us to mourn. She showed Nadine that none of us are immune to the storm of destructive feelings that accompany the departure of loved ones. She permitted us to release collective mourning for all the losses we have experienced in our lives. And in this book, she and David teach us how to grieve. I grew up in a family that went through many tragedies, but no one ever discussed it at all. I experienced those trials while trying to articulate the losses, without guidance, and without a framework to help me understand them. And when I became an adult, I realized I was still trying to deal with what had happened. I thought, to myself, that there must be a better way. At some point, people began mentioning Elizabeth Kubler-Ross to me, saying she wrote about the five stages of grief. And every time grief was mentioned in a conversation, her name was also brought up. I realized that talking about grief was helpful. And the writings of Kubler-Ross instilled the calm that such discussions could bring.