Cheryl Strayed Quotes

A fundamental and unfortunate part of being alive is to suffer loss and to suffer grief.

I was scared when I lost my mother, my father, my brother, my sister.

When my brother called to inform me, on the morning of May 22, 2003, that our mother Caroline Oates had died suddenly of a stroke, it was a shock from which, in a way, I have yet to recover.

Too many people I've loved dearly have left this earth. And some I've lost are still here breathing the same air. That grief can be comparable if not worse in its consumption.

My mother died in 1997 and I spiralled into this self-destructive vortex of trying to annihilate my consciousness. I was afraid to face the grief of losing her, because she was somebody I loved more than anybody else in the world.

Seeing death is not as difficult as you might think. What's harder is to see people suffer. It's the people the dead left behind that get to you.

I remember the day my mother died, and it's still hard to talk about it. I just blocked it out.

I was slapped down to the ground when my son Wade died in 1996, in April of 1996.

In December 1988, my mother died of lung cancer. I died too. I couldn't function.

I was terribly wounded by my wife's death.

Nothing prepared me for the loss of my mother. Even knowing that she would die did not prepare me.

My father died in my arms. That's tumult. That's everything exploding.

Grief is so human, and it hits everyone at one point or another, at least, in their lives. If you love, you will grieve, and that's just given.

When my father died, I was living in England. It was very traumatic that he died when I was away.

We die as often as we lose a friend.

Nobody can prepare you for the loss of a parent.

The loss of my father was the most traumatic event in my life - I can't forget the pain.

I am not sad, but I am melancholic. When you lose your mother at 20 and then your father soon after, melancholia is part of your life.

My life was very tenuous last year. My daughter's death, in March in 2007, was unexpected. It was a shock. I didn't know if I'd survive it.

It's very hard to lose someone who's the closest person to you in your life.

I've lost lots of men in my life, besides my mother, which is a whole different loss.

I sang with my father for over 50 years, and now all of a sudden he's gone, and I just dropped out.

To me, death is dark, pain, grief.

I think loss of loved ones is the hardest blow in life.

When the people you love are gone, you're alone.