Articles tagged: Grief

Voices

Questions without answers: Grieving my friend lost to suicide

Grief is a solitary experience on some level—it’s personal, intimate. But people can still grieve collectively. Placing grief in a community context elicits solidarity and a stronger ethics of interpersonal care. It helps unmask the shame, guilt, and blame that surround suicide. It names these questions, so at the very least, one knows other people are asking the same things, too. Discussing grief openly won’t diminish the loss, but maybe it can make the pain less hollow—less lonely.

By February 17, 2024

Voices

Language lessons from my grandmother

For the next year, my grandmother lived with my family to help raise my sister and me. Her gentle touch and her kind eyes grew familiar, so much so that I would often mistake her for my Mamu. It only made sense that my first word was addressed to her: “Aama,” which in Nepali, means “mother” and not “grandmother.” She wore the title proudly, like a pageant sash. I’d like to think this was the beginning, that the first word that spilled out of my mouth was in my mother tongue—a phrase dedicated to the woman who meant the most to me, yet I called her the wrong name. This is a story about words: the ones that were shared, others that were lost in translation, and some that never needed to be spoken aloud.

By November 18, 2023

Podcasts

Post Pitch: Language Lessons from my Grandmother

Welcome back to Post Pitch. This week, podcasts editor Romy Abu-Fadel interviews our Voices writer Alison Karki about her piece in this week’s issue of The Voice. Tune in to... Read more

By and November 17, 2023

Voices

After Lunar New Year gun violence, I devote myself to grief

Perhaps it’s mere human instinct to measure ourselves by shared tragedies, but there’s something brutal about the unregulated bullet being a defining genre of timestamp for our generation.

By February 3, 2023

Halftime Leisure

“Lift Me Up” is a soothing, triumphant tribute from Rihanna

A minute left before the Oct. 28 midnight official release of Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up,” time slowed to an agonizing crawl as a million questions surged to the forefront of... Read more

By November 18, 2022

Voices

Grief is the ghost we don’t know how to talk about

Healing from grief is a necessary life skill, both in that it is a part of life, and requisite to a healthy one.

By April 30, 2022

Voices

Why grief is more than a five-step process

The five stages of grief do not explain that every holiday and special occasion will be bittersweet because the feeling of loss simply does not end. They do not explain that talking is not the only way to process your emotions of grief, or that your love for the person who died cannot be changed by resuming your life. We need a new perception of grief; one that does not exclude what makes grief idiosyncratic

By August 12, 2021

Voices

How do we mourn someone we never really knew?

As we mourn the loss of public figures—celebrities, political titans, and victims of violent systems alike—we must honor their personhood while alive.

By November 1, 2020

Podcasts

Fresh Voices: Caroline Healey on Losing Her Mom

In this episode of Fresh Voices, Julia talks with Caroline about her mom’s death and how the way she misses her has changed.

By July 30, 2019

Voices

Carrying On: Amanda and the Pimpin’ Focus

When I was a kid, I wanted my first car to be a Ford Focus. I dreamed of whipping my cool, worldly friends around my tiny Texas town in a... Read more

By February 15, 2019