Death of a loved one — the immediate experience

In the immediate hours and days after a death, the ordinary world continues while the inner world stops — a disjunction so stark it can feel like madness. The practical demands arrive before the grief does, and grief itself arrives in fragments before it arrives in full. This domain accompanies the immediate experience of loss with honesty about what it is and what to expect, drawing on accounts from grief workers, traditions, and survivors of devastating loss.