This Is For Mrs Carolyn Wright. RIP

This is dedicated to Mrs Carolyn Wright, who died suddenly on the morning of April 4th 2012, and her family. Her husband Ian, daughters Alyson & Hannah, and her sons Peter & David. She was a beloved wife, mother, sister, daughter, and friend. May she rest in eternal peace.

Losing someone close to you is always a horrific thing to experience. Losing someone who knows you better than you know yourself is even worse. How can you go through every day without them? All you feel is empty, numb, lifeless. Each new day brings with it something you wish you could share with that person, see their reaction as you tell them what happened, hear them laugh with you, cry with you, get angry with you. When that gets taken away, either suddenly or you were waiting on it, counting down the days you had left with that person, you're left with a void that you somehow have to try and fill. Through no fault of your own, you are left having to find a solution to a problem you didn't ask for, one that you didn't want.

Personally, I've never felt that loss. I've never had to deal with that kind of grief. I've lost family members and friends from my parish, but no-one I was particularly close to. I've only ever had to watch someone else go through that pain.
Watching someone you love suffer a loss that huge is one of the toughest things anyone will ever have to do, second only to actually being the person who's suffering that loss. Watching them and knowing you can't do anything to make things better. Knowing you can't bring back their loved one, you can't give them answers as to why God decided to take them, why it was them and not someone else, someone they don't know, not having an answer to the one question that will forever be asked: why did it have to be their mother, their sister, their wife, their daughter.

God does things for reasons that we will never understand. Sometimes, if we pray enough, he'll show us and help us understand. Other times, we simply have to give up asking and just accept that there was a good reason that special person is no longer with us, one that we will never know.
The most anyone can do for someone in the situation my boyfriend, David, is in is just to be there. Support them, comfort them, accept the mood swings, the anger, the pain and the sadness. Encourage them to feel every emotion, not to run away from them or bottle them up but to let that emotion run through them for as long as it takes and be there with them when it does. Hold them close when they cry, steel yourself when they lash out, listen when they share memories and, most importantly, remind them that they aren't alone.