Sunday, January 24, 2016 was the seventh anniversary of my husband’s death. At some point near that date I would make my way to the cemetery and sit by his grave for awhile. I hadn’t been up there in almost two years at that point in time, as I no longer, had the need to go as often as I once had.

Prior to the first time that I went up to where Chuck is buried, it took a while for me to gather the courage. It may seem odd as many after loss are eager to visit their loved one’s grave soon after the funeral. I had mentioned to my bereavement group that I hadn’t been since the burial and, that I was planning to go soon then five months since Chuck had passed. They didn’t judge and gave me gentle words of encouragement. When I arrived at his crypt, I placed my hand on the cool marble, traced my fingers over his engraved name and wept and wept. The sounds came out of me like a soft lament from my heart to God’s ears.

When Chuck became ill out of the blue in December 2007, brakes were put on our normal life, the sound of the screech reverberating in my soul of souls. Our life would never be the same again, as we embarked on a new journey, one given to us on a platter made of lead. But through it all we continued to maintain our love for each other and it is that abiding love and our individual and collective faith that carried us through from diagnosis to his last breath.

Now however that period in my life finally feels like long ago and I’ve learned so much from all that I’ve been through. I’ve gone from not wanting to live without my husband, to rediscovering a new inner strength as I began to explore new possibilities for my life. I’ve gained a new perspective on the world and I’ve found my place in it. Even after his death, I could still feel Chuck’s transformed love surrounding me as I went about each day. It is that feeling of eternal love that has guided me up to the present. I’ve also gained a sixth sense about things as I’ve felt myself being pointed in the right direction, although I’m not always quite sure where I’m heading.

Love is an intangible thing, emotion …feeling. If it is truly there between two people, it is what will remain when life ceases for one. The remaining essence of that love can in fact become so strong that it seems palpable to those who “feel” it. But we must not  become so attached to these feelings that it entraps us as we run in place, mournful, reclusive, full of sorrow and  melancholy. We want to avoid getting caught up in a fantasy world of our own making, as we cling to our memories, instead of creating new ones.

Love is never interrupted as it is “that thing” that lives on eternally. Those of us who have loved and lost a loved one are truly fortunate to have had an experience that oftentimes eludes many for most of their lives. The fact that we have lost the person, doesn’t negate the fact that the love of that person, the beauty and the experience of having had him or her in one’s life, even if but for awhile, should be the overarching theme of a time in our lives that we will one day be able to look back on with warm feelings. If we remember the story of Victor Hugo’s daughter Adele H, note that she spent her entire life chasing after unrequited love. We do not want to spend the rest of our lives chasing after a love that we no longer have in the physical, making our experience of love lost more acutely painful than it should be.

When we grieve and recover, we can begin to rebuild our lives or we can decide to hold on tightly to our grief and pain so as not to “mar the legacy” or “lose the memory” of the loved one. This choice is always up to those who grieve. Take heed however, the longer we hold on, more than likely our lives will once again become interrupted by the physical manifestation of that tight grip, somewhere down the road..

Love is meant to be loving; it is not meant to be a choke-hold on one’s life. Your lost loved one’s spirit does not want you to disrupt your life here any longer than need be. When love is interrupted we must try to avoid blocking the residual essence of that love. When we release our grip on the past we will begin to allow a new experience to take hold in our lives.

Remember, love may have been interrupted, but it is never-ending and that feeling, the essence of what two people had, is what always remains.

To find out more about how you can heal after loss read Brave in a New World: A Guide to Grieving the Loss of a Spouse available on Amazon https://tinyurl.com/r6txttsy