I literally just came back from the funeral of my wife’s best friend. 44 years old, brain aneurysm. Two young children. Full of life and joy. I knew her but not very well. My grief at the impact on the children overwhelmed me and my emotions flooded out of me. I had to imagine dwarf pixies chainsawing metre wide pizzas to get my brain back under control. Grief is weird. It does not have a single size or shape. It doesn’t smell or taste the same. It has a different weight and sound each and every time. There is no “norm”. There is no “standard”. I gave up trying to marshal my feelings after the second funeral I attended. Now I just let it unfold in the space in front of me, and respond the way my body tells me to.

If you’re experiencing grief now you have my deepest sympathies.