Ambiguous Loss Quotes

“How does a person manage a loss that isn't?”
― Pat McLeod, Hit Hard: One Family's Journey of Letting Go of What Was--and Learning to Live Well with What Is

“When a loss is ambiguous, no public ceremony acknowledges the loss and its fallout, or honors the memory of the loved one. It was true for us. People still were unsure how to respond to the endlessness of our unique form of loss. Should they grieve with us or pretend life was fine now that Zach had lived through it all? Would we resent it if they didn't mention the injury, or if they did?”
― Pat McLeod, Hit Hard: One Family's Journey of Letting Go of What Was--and Learning to Live Well with What Is

“~ In the realm of Ambiguous Loss, the absence persists, the closure eludes. A narrative without an ending, where the lines between presence and absence blur, where endings are but distant mirages. Its chronic presence perpetuates a narrative of loss, a loss that remains unclear and without resolution. It has no closure or finality because the loss is ongoing...”
― Carson Anekeya

“The families of soldiers who are missing in action are often wrenched by decades of living in limbo. And years later, those left behind still haven't resolved their losses and may not be able to do so until they learn the truth. But that information may never come. Being in limbo of loss, is itself a loss.”
― David Kessler, You Can Heal Your Heart: Finding Peace After a Breakup, Divorce, or Death

“What do you mean we never dated, and yet I am still not over you?”
― Lokesh Tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”

“Being attached to someone you never actually had is a special kind of purgatory. It’s a waiting room in hell where the numbers are never called. You are a victim of a disaster that is entirely undocumented. You can't even claim the wreckage to the rest of the world, because technically, officially, the ship never sailed.”
― Lokesh Tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”

“It is the most wicked torture of the modern age—to be completely, violently shattered by someone who technically owes you absolutely nothing!”
― Lokesh Tuli, Notes From Exile: The "Manual for the Broken”