115 Quotes by Meghan O'Rourke

And after my mother's death I became more open to and empathetic about other people's struggles and losses.

Much of Hamlet is about the precise kind of slippage the mourner experiences: the difference between being and seeming, the uncertainty about how the inner translates into the outer, the sense that one is expected to perform grief palatably. (If you don’t seem sad, people worry; but if you are grief-stricken, people flinch away from your pain.)

'Hamlet' is a play about a man whose grief is deemed unseemly.

I have seen that grief can be very different for different people. While the range of emotions experienced is similar, the way we deal with those emotions isn't, necessarily.

It's all too easy when talking about female gymnasts to fall into the trap of infantilizing them, spending more time worrying more about female vulnerability than we do celebrating female strength.

Faith does help mourners survive their loss, some studies suggest; but I imagine one still struggles.

When my mother was sick, I found myself needing to put down in my journals all sorts of things - to try to understand them, and, I think, to try to remember them.

Writing has always been the primary way I make sense of the world.

Be patient with yourself. Don't make the loss harder by thinking you should be a certain way, or have bounced back, etc.