MOVING ON AFTER A LOSS

“When I hear about funerals giving ‘closure’ I cringe a bit. I hate that word. Yes, life does go on without the person who dies. For those who are left behind, there is no choice about it and the world keeps turning. But closure doesn’t happen. People shouldn’t expect to ‘get over it’ because they won’t. A tutor for a course I once did explained it perfectly: there is never closure, there is moving on to the next stage of life. You can move forward with your life but you will always have a gap where the person you loved used to be. It’s much easier to deal with death when you realise that. Then you don’t expect some magic morning to wake up and not feel sad any more.” – Francis Tipene, Life as a Casketeer