9 Years 4 Months: Grief

One of the books that helped me with handling difficult situation is Option B by Sheryl Sandberg. In the book, she chronicled her journey as she navigated her way through her husband's loss. She described how other people interacted with her and all the things she learned by facing the most devastating tragedy a wife can imagine.

In one of the chapters, she talked about how in the hospital, one of her friends bought food for her despite her refusal. She wrote that during grief, if the person in grief is a close friend and you know the person well, you should just help the person out. Just buy him or her food or coffee and come to their house to help out. Do not wait for an invitation.

The focus of the book was the grief of losing someone you love. However, the lessons from the book could be applied to other forms of sadness. After all, each of us may experience grief during different situations in life. A colleague's betrayal causes grief, failing an exam can be grief and just having a bad day can be devastating for a person.

I am glad I read that book sometime in 2019 as the coming year was a truly challenging one. The wisdom I learned from the book helped me go through the most difficult times. Do not hesitate to help when someone is grieving. Just call them and listen. During the acute phase of grief, the person may reject whatever you said, but, remember that this acute phase is not forever. The person you know will emerge from the messy situation and lets be there for them to celebrate.

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