Let me just say, I am no stranger to death. I've worked for a few years taking care of terminally ill, dying people. So this is not something entirely new but when it's someone I'm close to, I struggle.
It was so hard when my grandmother died. She and I were close. I'll never forget her voice. I came home early from college just to help with her hospice care and stay the night watching her. When she died, I wept bitterly at her funeral.
While my family is not really religious, I am one of the few atheists. I almost became jealous that they had the ability to believe in heaven, to have hope, to have comfort that they would see her again. I have none of that. I can never believe that no matter how hard I try. I missed her a lot. I still do.
I am not jealous anymore but I still think about how I used to feel that way, when her death was so recent.
I feel like being an atheist made her death MUCH harder for me because there is no hope of seeing her again or even having a feeling of "her soul" continuing on. But I can't really believe anything else... No matter how much I am hurting or wishing for it.
What are some ways that you cope and deal with the pain of losing a loved one, as atheists? Her death was relatively recent and I had never lost a close loved one until her.
It was so hard when my grandmother died. She and I were close. I'll never forget her voice. I came home early from college just to help with her hospice care and stay the night watching her. When she died, I wept bitterly at her funeral.
While my family is not really religious, I am one of the few atheists. I almost became jealous that they had the ability to believe in heaven, to have hope, to have comfort that they would see her again. I have none of that. I can never believe that no matter how hard I try. I missed her a lot. I still do.
I am not jealous anymore but I still think about how I used to feel that way, when her death was so recent.
I feel like being an atheist made her death MUCH harder for me because there is no hope of seeing her again or even having a feeling of "her soul" continuing on. But I can't really believe anything else... No matter how much I am hurting or wishing for it.
What are some ways that you cope and deal with the pain of losing a loved one, as atheists? Her death was relatively recent and I had never lost a close loved one until her.
