My mom played a huge part in my life, both growing up and as an adult. When she died, I took it really hard. I was grieving for years. The therapies suggested

My mom played a huge part in my life, both growing up and as an adult. When she died, I took it really hard. I was grieving for years. The therapies suggested here are good ideas, and various people did various versions of these, and I think it did help somewhat. But in the end, the thing that helped me the most was talking to the husband of one of my wife’s friends. He was older, and had more life experience than I did, and had recently had some of his own family who had recently passed away. The biggest thing he did for me was to tell me that the pain never really goes away, not completely. That giant sucking cavern in your soul never goes away, at least not completely. But it can get better over time, if you let it. And that can be easier if you allow yourself to get back into what would be your normal life, and participate with your friends and family. Kind of a “fake it til you make it” sort of thing, but where most everyone realizes that you might be faking it and that’s okay, but that you will recover. My dad passed away a couple of years ago. As his only living direct relative, I had to be the one to make the call to remove his life support. That decision and process afterwards was made a lot easier for me, thanks in part to my recovery from when my mom passed away.