+ Stages of Grief
These stages aren’t a system. They’re pieces.
I’ve been thinking about the stages of grief we don’t usually name. The small, strange moments that don’t fit neatly into a chart or timeline. The kind that arrive out of order, repeat themselves, and make you wonder if you’re failing at something everyone else seems to understand.
These stages aren’t a system. They’re pieces. I’ve met them again and again, sometimes years apart, sometimes all in one week. I’ve stopped treating their return as a setback and started seeing them as weather. Passing through a much larger life.
If any of these felt familiar, I hope this gave you language, or at least permission. Grief isn’t something to complete. It’s something we learn to live alongside.
My father left this world on November 7, 2019. I2026, he'll have been gone six years. There's no reversing what happened. I picture him now on some celestial balcony beside GOD, keeping watch over my life. Grief took me through countless phases, and when I say countless, I mean it felt endless. At one point, I had to face the stark reality: I no longer had a father walking this earth with me. Accepting this truth nearly broke me. Then one night, he appeared in my dream, his voice gentle but clear: " BabyGirl, life goes on, love never dies, it evolves." Something shifted in me after that. In that moment of my grief process, I began to heal.
Grateful for your publication.