I wish that someone would share their memories of you with me.
I think that it’s really sad that most people don’t realize how special it is for someone who’s grieving to hear their person’s name or to hear other people’s memories of them.
They usually just try to work around the gaping hole that has been left behind in the grieving person’s life instead.
Is that easier for them? Absolutely.
But does it help the person who’s grieving? Not at all.
I guess the topic of grief has just become such a taboo for the longest time that most people don’t even want to acknowledge it anymore. It always makes everyone so uncomfortable and weird and spacey.
I hate that. I’m trying to be a part of the solution to normalize grief and loss.
Because I don’t want people to be afraid to talk about their pain or to be unaware of how to appropriately comfort a person who’s hurting. I think if we could accomplish that, our world would be a much kinder, more gentle place.
I think that’s the kind of world that we’d live in if more people were like you, too.
Because oh, how you loved to tell stories and recount favorite memories. I always enjoyed listening to you.
I often find myself wondering what stories about me that you cherished the most. I guess I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life.
But more importantly, you always made someone feel like they mattered. You never left anyone out or made them feel as if they were unimportant.
You loved everyone, you listened to everyone, and you helped everyone, no matter what.
I want to be like that, too.
So I’m going to share my stories of you, and my stories of the rest of the people that I love, and my stories of me. I’m going to encourage others to do the same as well.
Because I don’t want people to forget about you, or the people that we love, or me. I want us to be remembered.
Is that conceded? Maybe.
But I’ve come to accept that I’m human and that at the end of the day, all anyone ever wants is to be loved and to be remembered.
Because no one deserves to be forgotten.
