Listening Ear

Today a friend updated me on her grief journey since her mom’s death six months ago. Although she clearly misses her mother, her grief stories were mostly about her spouse who died nearly three years ago. Funny how a new loss resurrects old grief that needs more processing. It’s as though all our tears become a well of grief, and when we lower the bucket it fills with tears from every loss in our life. We never know which loss will be our focus at any moment.

Arriving home from that meeting I opened an email from a woman whose aging parents seem to be taking turns in the hospital. Last week she spent five days in another city at her mother’s hospital bedside. Almost as an afterthought she reminded me that the fourth anniversary of her husband’s death was last week too. “Most people forgot,” she said, but she was grateful that her daughter remembered the day and came to visit.

Why is it so important that we have someone to listen? How does that help our grief process? Is is any less painful? Maybe it’s just more painful when we don’t have that listening ear and caring support.

Who has been there for you in times of loss and how has it made a difference?