When someone passes away, we say, "I'm sorry for your loss." But what that often really refers to is that moment's experience, as if it's the event that is the difficult part. If you've lost someone, you find that the event becomes a distant memory, and what we really struggle with is the "absence" of that person. It does get easier, over time, and it does gradually consume less and less of our thoughts. But grief is an unpredictable and deep experience, filled with a wide range of emotions, and it can show itself without warning. The absence of someone leaves us feeling an emptiness where someone once was. It leaves unfinished a whole list of "would have's" and "could have's," and plans that will now never happen. So how do we recover from grief, and from the loss & absence? Besides time, find ways to fill that hole with something meaningful, and something that helps you to remember, but to also feel fulfilment where there is absence. It's a gradual process and you'll sometimes go backward while trying to go forward. But you can do it. Make the most of your life, so that only one life is lost