The Weight of the Empty Couch:
There is a common misconception about grief—that it is a mountain you eventually summit, leaving the valley of sorrow behind for good. But anyone who has lost their "person" knows the truth. Don’t be fooled: the death of your spouse is not a season you pass through; it is a landscape you inhabit for the rest of your life. For me, everything is a reminder of Keith. It’s in the way our son, Liam, giggles—a sound so familiar it catches my breath. It’s in the quiet stillness of a Saturday morning. I’ll walk into the family room, expecting to see the two of them huddled over a video game, lost in their own world. Instead, I find Liam playing alone, or worse, an empty couch. In those moments, the silence is deafening. The Duality of "Normal" Loss creates a strange, bifurcated existence. There are "normal" days now—days filled with the mundane rhythm of running errands, working, driving Liam to and from practice, and paying bills. I’ve reached a point where I no ...
