Ann Hood

“Time passes and I am still not through it. Grief isn't something you get over. You live with it. You go on on with it lodged in you. Sometimes I feel like I have swallowed a pile of stones. Grief makes me heavy. It makes me slow. Even on days when I laugh a lot, or dance, or finish a project, or meet a deadline, or celebrate, or make love, it is there. Lodged deep inside of me.”

“Time doesn't heal, I had learned, it just keeps moving. And it takes us with it.”

“If you want to feel like ginger ale Claire, drink a ginger ale.”

“love is reliable. infatuation is temporary.”

“All that was missing... was everything else.”

“Follow love and it will flee;Flee love and it will follow you.”

“Grief is not linear. People kept telling me that once this happened or that passed, everything would be better. Some people gave me one year to grieve. They saw grief as a straight line, with a beginning, middle, and end. But it is not linear. It is disjointed. One day you are acting almost like a normal person. You maybe even manage to take a shower. Your clothes match. You think the autumn leaves look pretty, or enjoy the sound of snow crunching under your feet. Then a song, a glimpse of something, or maybe even nothing sends you back into the hole of grief. It is not one step forward, two steps back. It is a jumble. It is hours that are all right, and weeks that aren't. Or it is good days and bad days. Or it is the weight of sadness making you look different to others and nothing helps.”

“all that was missing...was everything else? Ann Hood, the Knitting Circle”

“Even now, there are still days so beautiful, I almost believe in God.”

“No mother should lose her child.”