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After my mother died, on Christmas of 2008, near-strangers urged me to learn about “the stages” I would be moving through. Perhaps the stage theory of grief caught on so quickly because it made loss sound controllable. The trouble is that it turns out largely to be a fiction, based more on anecdotal observation than empirical evidence.
Meghan O’Rourke in “Good Grief — Is there a better way to be bereaved?” from the Feb. 1 edition of The New Yorker.
I’m having trouble shaking this piece. Big mess of thoughts bumping around my brain.
