Quotes About Loss

So, I guess people figure it's not as hard to lose your mother when you never got along anyway. But they're wrong. They're dead wrong. It's always hard to lose your mother. Always. If you loved her, if you hated her. If she smothered you, if she ignored you. It doesn't matter. She's your mother. Your mother. That's just a very tough bond to break.

Do you know what forever love is? Pearl taught me. It's when you love somebody so much that no matter what happens that'll never change. Like even if you're gone. It's still the same. Even if you die. You die, but not the love. Not forever love. Know what I mean?

And then, every time I didn't see her, there was a fall involved. I thought about dancing on the fifth-floor ledge outside out apartment. Every train she wasn't on felt something like hitting the pavement from five floors up. So maybe my father was right about that. Maybe happiness and excitement really are dangerous things.

I don't mean that I remember hearing about it. I remember the caul, and then the sudden absence of it.

I think about the time Mitch asked me why I was such a happy little guy. I was five years old. Pearl had been gone a few weeks. I thought really hard for an answer even though I think he'd gone about his business without expecting one. Then I said, "I think it's because my mother loves me so much." He gave me this look of utter pity, like I was the bravest kid in the world. He missed the point completely, you know?

If you think having and losing is so bad, try never having. Now that's devastating.

pretend that the world could not—would not—strike with no notice, offering up a loss that could take a person's breath away. Of course it can, she thought, and you know it better than just about anybody. We only pretend it can't, a minute or two at a time, to help us get up and out of the house in the morning.

Life gives us nothing outright. It only lends. Nothing is ours to keep. Absolutely nothing. Not even our bodies, our brains. This 'self' that we think we know so well, that we think of as us. It is only on loan. If a person comes into our life, they will go again. In a parting of ways, or because everyone dies. They will die or you will die. Nothing we receive in this life are we

Some things, like innocence, only go one way.

we are bound by a common love, a stronger bond now, as it extends to a common loss.

It's always 'something is lost, but something else is gained.

People get by in all kinds of situations. All over the world people are getting by on almost nothing. Losing things they think they can't live without. Or at least that they think they can't be happy without. But then it's pretty hard to be happy . . . you know . . . if it's dependent on some material possession not going away. I don't

This is one of the advantages of dying young. Everybody you left behind will need your help

Whatever big hole people got in their heart, they want something to fill it up. That's what he wants from you. But he'll never get it. Because you can't ever fill a hole in you with somebody else. But everybody keeps trying, though, even though it never brings nothing but heartache to both parties.

guess in a lot of ways I've partially gotten over the traumatic event of her passing. But what you don't realize, until you have to live it, is that it's the absence of the person that's the trouble. The ongoing absence. And when you're missing someone, a longer time without them doesn't solve the problem. The longer you don't see someone, the more you miss them.

Because it seems we get over everything, given enough time. And I guess in a lot of ways I've partially gotten over the traumatic event of her passing. But what you don't realize, until you have to live it, is that it's the absence of the person that's the trouble. The ongoing absence. And when you're missing someone, a longer time without them doesn't solve the problem. The longer you don't see someone, the more you miss them.

When you've only ever had one child, and she's gone, are you still a mother? Maybe. But I don't even know.

How'd we let so much time go by... When we swore we wouldn't?

death is the most helpless and irrevocable of states.

I don't know if war is always pointless," she said. "I know it's always tragic.

They were not children. They had grown into people he knew little about. And they had done so without his help or influence, or even,--for the most part--his witness. It made him feel as though something precious had been taken from him.

If a person comes into our life, they will go again. In a parting of ways, or because everyone dies. They will die or you will die. Nothing we receive in this life are we allowed to keep.

I made him my whole world. And so my world was always too small. Then when he died, I didn't know what my world was anymore. I wasn't even sure I had one.

And I think to myself, If you think having and losing is so bad, try never having. Now that's devastating.