Joan > Joan's Quotes

“Grief is not linear. People kept telling me that once this happened or that passed, everything would be better. Some people gave me one year to grieve. They saw grief as a straight line, with a beginning, middle, and end. But it is not linear. It is disjointed. One day you are acting almost like a normal person. You maybe even manage to take a shower. Your clothes match. You think the autumn leaves look pretty, or enjoy the sound of snow crunching under your feet. Then a song, a glimpse of something, or maybe even nothing sends you back into the hole of grief. It is not one step forward, two steps back. It is a jumble. It is hours that are all right, and weeks that aren't. Or it is good days and bad days. Or it is the weight of sadness making you look different to others and nothing helps.”
― Ann Hood, Comfort: A Journey Through Grief

“No mother should lose her child.”
― Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle

“Even now, there are still days so beautiful, I almost believe in God.”
― Ann Hood, Comfort: A Journey Through Grief

“Follow love and it will flee;
Flee love and it will follow you.”
― Ann Hood

“The only language she could speak was grief. How could he not know that?
Instead, she said, "I love you." She did. She loved him. But even that didn't feel like anything anymore.”
― Ann Hood (The Knitting Circle), The Knitting Circle

“Don't waste your one beautiful life.”
― Ann Hood

“all that was missing...was everything else?

Ann Hood, the Knitting Circle”
― Ann Hood

“love is reliable. infatuation is temporary.”
― Ann Hood, The Obituary Writer

“All that was missing... was everything else.”
― Ann Hood, The Knitting Circle

“If you want to feel like ginger ale Claire, drink a ginger ale.”
― Ann Hood, The Obituary Writer

“Time doesn't heal, I had learned, it just keeps moving. And it takes us with it.”
― Ann Hood, Comfort: A Journey Through Grief

“Time passes and I am still not through it. Grief isn't something you get over. You live with it. You go on on with it lodged in you. Sometimes I feel like I have swallowed a pile of stones. Grief makes me heavy. It makes me slow. Even on days when I laugh a lot, or dance, or finish a project, or meet a deadline, or celebrate, or make love, it is there. Lodged deep inside of me.”
― Ann Hood, Comfort: A Journey Through Grief

“On April 18, 1906, when that earthquake hit San Francisco and took David from her, Vivien began to speak the language of grief. She understood that grief is not neat and orderly; it does not follow any rules. Time does not heal it. Rather, time insists on passing, and as it does, grief changes but does not go away. Sometimes she could actually visualize her grief. It was a wave, a tsunami that came unexpectedly and swept her away. She could see it, a wall of pain that had grabbed hold of her and pulled her under. Some days, she could reach the air and breathe in huge comforting gulps. Some days she barely broke the surface, and still, after all this time, some days it consumed her and she wondered if there was any way free of it.”
― Ann Hood, The Obituary Writer

“Don't waste your one beautiful life," Vivien said softly.”
― Ann Hood, The Obituary Writer