Michelle Obama Quotes

Those of you who are strong need to be there for those who have lost someone today. We have to be here for each other right now.

There's a general impulse to distract the grieving person - as if you could.

I think when you suffer a tremendous loss, everybody needs love and support in tangible ways. And that's what people have done for us.

People in grief need someone to walk with them without judging them.

There is no more ridiculous custom than the one that makes you express sympathy once and for all on a given day to a person whose sorrow will endure as long as his life. Such grief, felt in such a way is always present, it is never too late to talk about it, never repetitious to mention it again.

Eleonora Duse said, "Tell me about Deirdre and Patrick," and made me repeat to her all their little sayings and ways, and show her their photos, which she kissed and cried over. She never said "Cease to grieve", but she grieved with me, and, for the first time since their death, I felt I was not alone.

My father died right after the movie Rain Man was released. He got to see it, then literally the day before he died, he asked Mama to take him to see it one more time - because he knew he was declining. Tom's assistant at the time told him my father died, and he wrote me a very personal note. I haven't seen him since, but you can't say anything bad about Tom Cruise to me, because anybody who takes the time to do that is very special.

That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we knew always fell short of what we wanted them to say.

Talking about your feeling with someone who is willing to listen can be enormously consoling, especially if that person has experienced a death similar to the one you are grieving.

Like some kind of strange vacuum cleaner I tried to console him. I recited the same old litanies that you say to people when you try to help their broken hearts, but words can't help at all. It's just the sound of another human voice that makes the only difference. There's nothing you're ever going to say that's going to make anybody happy when they're feeling shitty about losing somebody that they love.

Care for the living. I'll weep for the dead later. - Perrin Aybara

Grief lasts longer than sympathy, which is one of the tragedies of the grieving.

I believe that everyone can appreciate the right of a family to grieve the loss of a loved one in peace, regardless of anyone's position on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But there is a discomfort that surrounds grief. It makes even the most well-intentioned people unsure of what to say. And so many of the freshly bereaved end up feeling even more alone.

Seven years is a long time, and he was there for me, when my mum died. He was very compassionate at that time. I couldn't have found anyone better in that situation.

We should not clap our hands and mourn, for he is out of trouble. You are still in it.

There are widows who long for friendly voices and that spirit of anxious concern which speaks of love.

Going through an illness and then death of a close friend has changed my attitudes to friendship enormously.

America had taken my father from me. And over most of the years of his illness, I gradually started feeling this support system from this country who-people grieving along with us.

And after my mother's death I became more open to and empathetic about other people's struggles and losses.

When you've lost a loved one, you realise how grateful you are for any help in those moments, and any scheme that tries to help families during that terrible time gets my backing.

For example, when my mother died, the people who showed up just to put an apron on to cook, people who really do the right thing, so to speak, as my momma would always say to show that they care, a sense of community that we've lost so much in our country.

I know when my parents passed away, I wanted all the support I could get.

The truth is, it was my Nanna and Grandad who helped me get over my mum's death. Surrounding me with infinite, unquestioning love, they were classic kinship carers.

My heart goes out to anyone who suffers, and of course, to their families.