Tag: death and grief

It hit me the other day: With my mother’s death, I am now the senior woman in my family. In Native cultures, that is a massive deal. Aunties are all-powerful, they are the wise women, the matriarchs who carry traditions forward.

My dear friend, Ellen, died in December 2021. Hers was a long fight with cancer. She survived far longer than doctors had predicted. And until the end, she remained active and lively.

I mean that there is an element to our grief when a young person dies that is not there in the death of an elder. That’s because, after such a death, we mourn not only for our loved one’s absence but also for the decades to come that we now will not and cannot share.