Essay: Living with Grief- Lessons and Truths I’ve Learned in the Past Two Years After My Big Loss by Roopa Swaminathan (Part 7)

In her essay, Roopa Swaminathan shares how she feels two years after her parents’ death and the aftermath that followed.

As December 2022 came and went, I took stock of my life over the past two years since the big tragedy that befell me in December 2020. And the following is what I have learned over these two years. 

1. Life goes on. 

As much as you think, pray, hope, yearn, rage, fear, and agonize over the world coming to a halt because of what happened to you – the bitterest of truths is that life goes on. Let me say that again. Life. Goes. On. The trees bloom. The dogs bark. The sucky family continues to suck. The best friends continue to pick up when you call them on Zoom at 2 am to walk you through the pain. Bollywood’s worst films release with clockwork precision. Really. Nothing changes. No one stops. So, while your life has stopped and then restarted and continues to chug along like a steam engine train that no longer exists – the rest of the world moves at warp speed. They don’t know. They don’t care. And that’s the hardest of pills to swallow.