What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Cry Forever

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I didn’t know where to turn for help right after Rob died, so I did what we all do nowadays and searched the internet. I don’t even remember what I was looking for exactly, probably just something that would take away a tiny bit of pain or provide some semblance of an explanation or the slightest ray of hope.

Try Googling “parents who have lost a child to suicide” ... um, on second thought, maybe don’t. After that fruitless search thoroughly bummed me out, I came across a handout from my initial intake meet at Our House Grief Support Center entitled “Grief Is a Process.” When I first read it, I thought it was generic fluff, an obvious and optimistic roadmap kind of thing that you might find in the waiting room of a therapist’s office.

The truth was that it was impossible for me to process anything at the time, least of all grief. I was a dead man walking and could barely read through my tears. Everything felt so empty and meaningless, especially words.

But now that Rob’s been gone for more than a few years, I thought it might be time to revisit the words in that grief guide and add some 20/20 hindsight of my own.

A better title would be “What to Expect When You’re Expecting to Cry........

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