3,968 Quotes About Grief

Sadness is a funny thing. It visits a person when it wants.

The tears spill as I pull out of the intersection. I leave him to it, his own personal grieving process. He doesn't need me telling him everything will be okay when we both know it won't. Instead I give his hand a firm squeeze. My role is clear to me now. I will be the strong one. I'll be good at this. I am aware of my limitations. I'm not warm, I'm not especially kind. But I can be strong. I can allow Tom to slip away knowing I will be all right. This, I can give him.

Sometimes when light dawns it simply illuminates how dismal circumstances have become.

I know now that it is hard to live for long periods without trusting anyone or anything. It's like living without sleep; eventually it will kill you.

Embrace the pain

...what happens when you returnand find nothingbut a hollowed shell,shingles and floor,walls and echoesand the light that lead you herehas now burned outand the ones who built ithave traveled afarand you cant go to them,no matter what shoes you wear.

The single dinner plate, the silent house, the tumbler in the sink--this was how it would be if he lost her. His mother had gone quickly, from liver cancer, the mass discovered too late. He thought of his father alone in his condo, crossing off days on the calendar like a prisoner. He'd survived her by thirteen years, yet every time Henry saw him, he quoted her as if they'd just spoken. Henry could picture himself doing the same to the children. He already lived too much in his memory.

He saw so many emotions mingled on her face: anger disappointment, fear – and defiance. Like her daughter, thought Fenoglio again. So uncompromising, so strong. Women were different, no doubt about it. Men broke so much more quickly. Grief didn’t break women. Instead it wore them down, it hollowed them out, very slowly.

Suddenly, after you die, those friends who never agreed about anything agree about your character.