My friend of thirty years – my best friend growing up – buried his wife today. Hundreds of thousands of words have been spoken on the subject this week, from opinion surrounding her death to words of comfort, to unfocused anger, loss, sorrow, and outrage at her death. But at the end of the day, when we strip away opinion, fact, comfort and rage – a man buried his wife today. A man buried his wife today. What a horrible sentence. A daughter her mother. A parent their child. A family their loved one. We aren’t designed to cope with this, it is truly, biologically unnatural for our minds, our hearts – both figurative and real, our bodies as a whole to deal with this level of pain, this level of loss. Fortunately, through the shared experience of empathy, one person’s pain can be divided and carried by several, thus easing the burden, if only by a fraction. To my friend, all I can say is that your pain is my pain. I am truly sorry for your loss, for your pain. You are loved greatly.
