“It is impossible to comprehend the intense anguish of loss, until death comes to someone you love” (Grollman, pg. ix). There’s nothing worse than experiencing the death of a loved one, and trying to adapt to a life without their smile, warm embrace, and presence. In this book, Living when a loved one has died, Rabbi Earl A. Grollman has comprised various poems about grief into four sections: shock, suffering, recovery, and new life. Before he transitions to a new chapter, Grollman provides a brief summary of what the grieving individual is going through, at a certain stage of grief. Although I haven’t experienced the death of a loved one, myself, I can imagine how this book can be comforting to an individual who feels like a part of them has …show more content…
4). This book can be helpful to a society, who has lost their relationship with death, and help them understand the consequence of love is grief. When a person experiences a death, they are afraid of the unknown, and the pain associated with grief. In his book, Grollman goes into great detail on how an individual might feel throughout certain stages of their grief. Shock is the first reaction when they learn of a loved one’s death. Grollman establishes that death is final, and irrevocable, in the first few pages. “You are all but drowning in the sea of your private sorrow. The person who has been part of your life is gone forever” (Grollman, pg. 2). A person might feel as there’s an abundance of things left unsaid, unfulfilled, and yearn for their loved one. The griever might wonder how they can go on living, when their world has been shattered. The book transitions into “suffering” and recognizes the feelings associated: numbness, denial, anger, panic, physical illness, and depression, and the griever is advised these are all normal reactions. Grollman dives into the feelings associated with suffering, and reassures the griever it’s normal to feel the way they do. In terms to numbness, the shock from a death might cause the griever to go through temporary paralysis, which acts as a protective mechanism. With