Remember

You Don’t Just Lose Someone Once
You lose them over and over,
sometimes many times a day.
When the loss, momentarily forgotten,
creeps up and strikes from behind.
Fresh waves of grief crash in as the realization hits home:
They are gone.
Again.

You don’t just lose someone once.
You lose them every time you open your eyes to a new dawn.
As you awaken, so does your memory,
and with it, the jolting bolt of lightning that tears through your heart:
They are gone.
Again.

Losing someone is not a single event; it’s a journey.
There is no end to the loss.
There is only the learned skill of staying afloat
when the waves wash over you.

Be kind to those navigating these stormy seas.
They face a journey ahead of them,
a daily shock to the system
as they realize, once more:
They are gone.
Again.

You don’t just lose someone once.
You lose them every day,
for a lifetime.