A Year of Grief: What I Have Learned So Far

My dad died a year ago last month. In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago, in others it is as though it happened last week. It feels like the phone could ring tomorrow with the same news and I would nod my head and say “Oh yes, I have been waiting for this call. The past year was just a dream, wasn’t it?” It is as if I have only just begun to understand or accept the reality of it. I think we only begin to process a death after the initial shock has started to wear off. I want to share what I have learned this past year, in my case grieving an estranged (but still loved) parent. I still have a lot to learn on this grief journey, but I feel that I have arrived at some semblance of beginning to understand some of it. <h2>You cannot predict how the loss of a person will make you feel</h2> Over the years I had wondered a few times how I might feel when my dad died. I figured I would feel sad for a while but that it wouldn’t rock my world too badly, because my dad hasn’t been a part of my life for many years. I could not have been more wrong. My dad’s death was sudden, a severely upsetting shock that I have never experienced anything like. The first couple of weeks I could hardly breathe without crying. The tears and pain were uncontrollable and felt endless. <a href="https://medium.com/the-wind-phone/a-year-of-grief-what-i-have-learned-so-far-d4a91aefa398">Website</a>