Dealing with Grief: The Never-Ending Pain of Losing a Parent

Being part of the dead mom's club is never a club we wanted to be a part of. There is such an added layer of grief losing them at an earlier age because it feels unfinished and they're missing most of our lives. I lost my mom in 2018 due to cancer. I was in therapy after she was diagnosed and am still in grief therapy 4 years later. It's okay if you don't feel comfortable talking to your family about your feelings. But I find it is important for me to have a safe space where I can express those emotions. Whether it is to a trusted friend, a therapist, or even writing it down on paper. I still talk to my mom and write her letters trying to work through my grief. One of my grief therapists told me this analogy called ball in a box. Grief is a ball in a box and it bounces around constantly hitting the walls of the box causing pangs of emotion. Over time the space in the box increases. So though the grief doesn't diminish or disappear there is space for more things outside of your grief. And that space allows that ball to hit the walls of the box less causing our grief to not make us so constantly raw.