Grief doesn't have a plot. It isn't smooth. There is no beginning and middle and end.
Interpretation
Grief is a chaotic and unpredictable experience without a clear structure or timeline.
Ann Hood's quote highlights the complex and often disjointed nature of grief. Unlike stories with defined beginnings, middles, and ends, grief is a winding journey that can surface unexpectedly, challenging individuals as they navigate their emotional responses without a clear roadmap or resolution.
In practice
During a memorial service, this quote can help express the unpredictable nature of grieving.
My daughter, Grace, was not killed by a gun. She died suddenly at age 5 from a virulent form of strep. As I stood stunned in a church at her memorial, one of the hardest things I heard someone say was, 'I'm going to go home and hug my child a little tighter.' 'Well, good for you,' I thought. 'I'm going to go home and scream.'
My life has been the polar opposite of safe, but I am proud of it and so is my son, and that is good enough for me. I would do it all over again without changing the beat, although I have never recommended it to others. That would be cruel and irresponsible and wrong, I think, and I am none of those things.
You got to take the crookeds with the straights. That's what Papa used to say.
It's so jarring to go from Baghdad to Cambridge, to go from a place where people are fighting and striving and dying to a place where the biggest concern is what kind of cheese to put in your sandwich.
I've got a lot of opportunities, a lot of love in my life, a lot of things going for me. Still, it's not complete. I know this is not the whole thing. There's much more.
I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.
There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday and the other is called Tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly Live.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.