Good Grief

Good Grief

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Good Grief
Good Grief
Why I Keep Showing Up in My Grief

Why I Keep Showing Up in My Grief

Because we are mirroring creatures.

Jeanette Brown's avatar
Jeanette Brown
Apr 12, 2023
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Good Grief
Good Grief
Why I Keep Showing Up in My Grief
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My mama died when I was 25, and it broke me.

But the rest of the world seemed to think I needed to get on with my life and right back to the grind.

I told my boss at BusinessWeek I wasn’t ready to come back and asked if I could have more time. She said no. She said getting right back to work was just what she and her boss needed after their mothers died. Not acknowledging they were in their fifties and sixties when their mothers died.

Losing a parent in your twenties is nothing like losing a parent in your fifties or sixties.

The only person who’d ever really cared about and prioritized my needs had just died. I had no one to encourage me to trust myself that I needed more time to grieve. It was actually an enormous act of selfcare that I asked for more time. I was not someone who asked for things often or easily.

The answer was no and I had rent and student loans and therapy to pay for. So I went back to work and swallowed my grief. Packed away my sadness. Ceased talking about my mom…

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