Abraham Verghese Quotes

If a man does not die of a wound, then it heals in some fashion, and so it is with loss. From the sharp pain of immediate berevement, both the Prince and I passed into the gray days of numb bewilderment and waiting. So grief has always seemed to me, a time of waiting not for the hurt to pass, but to become accustomed to it.

Losing my parents was probably the hardest and deepest blow from which I've had to recover.

After my husband died, I could not write much - I could not concentrate. I was too exhausted most of the time even to contemplate writing. But I did take notes - not for fiction, but for a journal, or diary, of this terrible time. I did not think that I would ever survive this interlude.

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

I was terribly wounded by my wife's death.

Grief is exhausting.

When someone dies instantly, then I think the well of grief and disbelief all mixed in with it is unfathomable. And when murder is involved, that just takes it into a whole new place. There is an extra dimension you just can't compute or deal with.

My whole life sort of ended when my mom died.

As someone who has lived the nightmare of losing a child, I know that the enormous hole left behind remains forever.

There is a drunkenness to grief, which is good.

To lose a son under those circumstances - a violent death like my son went through, it just puts a burden on your heart.

When Michael died I was tipped over the edge. I was beyond grief.

Grief is a terrible, painful place. You can't grind away on grief in a solid way and say, 'I'm going to work on this until it's over' because it will be with you for the rest of your life, whatever you do. So, you deal with it and move on.

When the baby dies, On every side Rose stranger's voices, hard and harsh and loud. The baby was not wrapped in any shroud. The mother made no sound. Her head was bowed That men's eyes might not see Her misery.

There's no road map. There's no textbook on how grief works and when your heart will be open - or if it ever will.

Of course the death of Geoffrey has caused a lot of trauma to me generally.

The loss of a child is the most terrifying place for me to go.

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

Our culture has become increasingly intolerant of that acute sorrow, that intense mental anguish and deep remorse which may be defined as grief. We want to medicate such sorrow away.

Grief causes suffering and disease.

Grief changes shape, but it never ends.

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.

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

I was taking a nose dive somewhere between eleven and twelve because my sister had died and I was practicing something that siblings do which is follow in their footsteps and die as well.

Losing my mum. That was a punch-me moment.