When somebody important to somebody close to you dies, you hope they can see the empathy in your eyes and feel the love in your hug despite the useless things you say. Because there is nothing to say besides death fucking sucks.
Whether death comes suddenly or takes its time, we are left with the same surreal void: someone is, and then, inexplicably, impossibly, they are not.
So we participate in the rituals, and we say the useless things, and we take that surreal void and we fill it up with stories, and with memories, and with love.
And I don't know if it ever really works, but it's all we can do.
