Losing a spouse or partner is one of the hardest things we can experience. The grief can take a deep physical and psychological toll and cause a crisis of meaning and faith, especially if the relationship was especially close or the circumstances of the loss sudden or painful. After the immediate shock, many survivors find it is a long process of experiencing small, sharp losses to normalcy that seem to appear at random as we learn to re-navigate life without our partner, whatever our age. We also find ourselves facing social expectations around our grief and judgments about if and when we want to explore new relationships. Each of us has to walk a unique journey to process our grief and fold the love for our spouse back into our lives.
There is nothing that can replace the absence of someone dear to us, and one should not even attempt to do so. One must simply hold out and endure it. At first that sounds very hard, but at the same time it is also a great comfort.
