Quote from: Huggs on Aug 01, 2019, 11:43:41 PM
Everybody absorbs it differently.
There are also many factors that determine how our minds and bodies respond to it. Whether the person or pet had lived a full life or was young, how they died, where they died, etc.
When my grandfather died of Alzheimer's, the family was somewhat at peace because he was no longer suffering and we had been given years to mentally prepare ourselves. Very few of us cried. We were proud of him and the life he lived and were glad he was finally at peace. When my 16 year old dachshund died of kidney failure I cried like a baby for the whole evening but moved on the very next morning. A few months later, a relative died unexpectedly and in my arms at 2 o'clock in the morning. I didn't sleep for 40 hours, forgot entire days, and over the next two weeks I woke up covered in sweat and screaming into my own hands.
It's part of life, and it's one of those things that can easily get either worse or more tolerable as you encounter it.
Very true.
Personally I'm finding it harder as I get older and experience it more. Well, the first time I really came face to face with it was the hardest because it was my mother and totally out of the blue, and your statement "I didn't sleep for 40 hours, forgot entire days, and over the next two weeks I woke up covered in sweat and screaming into my own hands." nails that experience.
The next few deaths were various grandparents and a pet, all of whom were very old and tired and as you say, there's a certain peace and almost relief to that kind of death.
Then all the suicides started in my own age-group, and between a frankly shocking number of those in just a few years, and the mauling/slow death of another pet of mine most recently, my ability to handle it has just been worn down to nothing. Feels like I can't even be there for my friends when they experience bereavement any more, because the weight is too crushing now.
