[JKCalhoun]

Hopefully he finds the writing is the recovery.

Or hopefully he finds anything at all that helps. I lost my mother just a little over a year ago and it was (is) hard. In addition to the pain of loss though losing your spouse has to be even more disruptive to moving forward with your life.

[brucedawson]

Author here: I find it quite strange that my kids have lost their mother, but I have not. I still have both my parents. That's so backwards.

Therefore I can't compare the grief of losing a parent to that of losing a spouse, and even when my parents do die (they are both in their eighties) it won't be the same because it will, to some extent, feel like the "right" time.

Losing a spouse is definitely disruptive as well and I have had to learn a lot of new skills, but they were probably overdue anyway. That part has been challenging, but quite manageable in comparison to the loss part.