Grieving and Mourning: What’s the Difference?

Dia de los Muertos, Mexico City 2019 photo credit: Thomas_H_photo (@thomas_h_photo1) • Instagram photos and videos

For most of my life I have used the words “grief” and “mourning” as if they are interchangeable. It wasn’t until my spouse passed away, after I’d read some books and some necessary poetry, that I came to know that each of these words has its own strength. Grief is that feeling that brings you to a place of sitting on your floor in a corner, sobbing, snotty-nosed as a child. Anguish is a word I associate with…