Grief Process Quotes

“You think the final act of love is setting them free to Rainbow Bridge? That is not the final act of love. The final act of love is releasing them from your leash of grief so they can be free in the heaven on the other side of the Bridge. Until you resolve your grief, you bind them to you in the land between Heaven and Earth while they wait, suspended between the worlds, for you to heal. When you are free of your grief, they are free of your grief.”
― Kate McGahan, JACK McAFGHAN: Reflections on Life with my Master

“You meet grief without introductions”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“Griever, to cry is expected; to laugh is divine”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“Dr. Lana says again. “It’s the very last thing we expected. The first 24 hours after surgery are always critical, but he seemed to be doing well. We thought he was going to make it. We are just all so very, very sorry.” There is a moment of silence. Everyone looks so sad. “He’s coming back to me. He’ll reincarnate,” They stare at me. “And he’ll be a Shih Tzu again. I don’t know if he’ll be a boy or a girl. I don’t know what he’ll look like, either. But I know he’s coming back to me.” I’m as astonished as they are. I can’t believe I’ve said such a thing out loud. Their expressions don’t change. They don’t disagree, or even argue. Of course, I think, they’re professionals. This is a veterinary hospital. They’re having to deal with this all the time. Animals come here because they’re hurt or sick, and some of them don’t make it. Most likely, they think I’m in denial. That’s the first stage of the grief process – denial.”
― Gail Graham, Will YOUR Dog Reincarnate?

“Bargaining is the third stage of the grief process. So am I bargaining? Am I telling myself that it’s okay for Bao to be dead so long as it’s only temporary? I think about this, walking across the hospital parking lot to my car. But it doesn’t feel right. I’m not bargaining. Besides, knowing that Bao is coming back does not mitigate the unbearable pain of having lost him.”
― Gail Graham, Will YOUR Dog Reincarnate?

“Grief is best done with a vivid imagination”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“Grief is a courtship with death”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“Grief is the deepest, swiftest river you will drown in”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“In grief, you will be invited to hold hands with death”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“You can not hang up on grief”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“Reach into your sorrow, take hold of grief and dance”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“Loss isn't singular”
― Jane Edberg, The Fine Art of Grieving

“The actual problem is incredibly boring, and Mark hates admitting it even to himself. Unless a couple has the good fortune to get hit by the same freight train, their story ends in exactly one way. He can’t go through that twice, and he couldn’t inflict it on anybody else.”
― Cat Sebastian, You Should Be So Lucky

“If I am on the move and not in one place, then I can perhaps outrun myself. If I linger, then like dark flies on a dead deer, the memories and thoughts land and terror seems to fester and pull me in. I cannot bear to be at [home], where too many people will be watching me, waiting for something to happen, waiting for me to sink or swim, when all I want to do is float, as I did in hospital when the present was held at bay.”
― Jacqueline Winspear, A Dangerous Place

“The years softened the hard edges of my anger - for I was angry at my loss, there is no other way to describe the utter pain”
― Jacqueline Winspear, A Dangerous Place

“She wanted to be woken by daylight, to hear the gulls above the rooftops; she wanted to know as soon as her eyelids lifted that she was not back in the past. She hated waking only to experience the jolt of remembering why her heart felt so heavy in her chest. The light might allow the ache of recollection to enfold her gently.”
― Jacqueline Winspear, A Dangerous Place

“Now she could feel herself slipping back, as if she had managed to climb almost to the top of grief's dark void, only to lose her strength, her fingernails ceasing to hold.”
― Jacqueline Winspear, A Dangerous Place

“Her broken heart was still beating. How come? Buses were running, buzzing, humming. People were smiling.
Birds' chatter and kids' laughter rang in her ears, causing her pain. The streets with fancy boutiques, ready for the winter testival, were nonchalant to her sorrow. And the coffee shops served croissants.”
― NZ Kaminsky

“As life has its way, unfortunate events often happen in a row-one after another, shooting forth like a rapid train in front of our eyes. When one's heart is still hurting, still fighting, another strike is already on the way.
No time to feel, no time to notice, no time to heal.”
― NZ Kaminsky, Sense of Home

“Her broken heart was still beating. How come? Buses were running, buzzing, humming. People were smiling.
Birds' chatter and kids' laughter rang in her ears, causing her pain. The streets with fancy boutiques, ready for the winter testival, were nonchalant to her sorrow. And the coffee shops served croissants.

— Sense of Home”
― NZ Kaminsky, Sense of Home

“Her broken heart was still beating. How come? Buses were running, buzzing, humming. People were smiling.
Birds' chatter and kids' laughter rang in her ears, causing her pain. The streets with fancy boutiques, ready for the winter testival, were nonchalant to her sorrow. And the coffee shops served croissants”
― NZ Kaminsky, Sense of Home

“Maybe grief is a way to acknowledge the combined separateness and togetherness of the relationship once shared. Death is a sharp slap that refuses to be ignored The End seems so final.”
― Piper Winifred, The Path of Grief: & the Imagined Future

“When grief becomes madness, reality becomes a choice.”
― Andrea Greaton, The Widow: A Psychological Thriller