Embracing and Sharing
Grief by Dr. Dorothy Hunse
Grief is especially relevant right now as we face losses during the global pandemic – losses that include life expectations, hopes, dreams, and milestones, like graduations, weddings, and, of course, funerals. But, due to COVID-19, we are not able to grieve in the usual way. Whether we live down the street from our friends and family, or across the country, many of us are unable to gather in the same room with our loved ones to put a supportive arm around a shoulder and hug. That’s why it’s even more important to talk about how we help each other to grieve.
What is grief? To answer this question, some will think of words like ‘process’ and ‘journey’ and ‘letting go’. Others may consider Elisabeth KublerRoss’ five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. And many will think about funerals, memorial services, celebrations of life, receptions, and internments. Grief theorists refer to it as an adaptive process, a process that helps us adapt to the reality of the loss that we’ve experienced—whether we’ve lost a loved one, a job, a hope or dream, a beloved pet, or our sense of community in the days of COVID-19 and physical distancing. Much could be said about grief: how we define it and how we deal with it. I’d like to focus on two: grief needs to be embraced (no matter what the loss) and grief needs to be shared.
Grief needs to be embraced. In the book A Grace Disguised, Jerry Sittser recounts his experience of a terrible and tragic loss. The loss involved the death of his wife, his mother, and his four-year-old daughter in a head-on car crash
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