We like to have things in our lives well organized, our tasks in order, and our emotions under control. Yet grief defies such easy categorization and instead forces us to operate on general principles. Despite this, we will see that it is possible to identify certain patterns in our experience that are found with those who have already been there. Grief is not linear. You don’t start at the loss, and then proceed in a nice straight line through phases like “anger” or “sadness” until you reach the