Grieving
...er soul.” In her shock, she sits motionless in her chair with a “dull stare” that indicates “a suspension of intelligent thought.” Denial starts as she becomes aware of the world outside her window. She notices that the trees sprouting, ready to bloom as spring approaches. She can smell the scent of rain and see the birds playing in the eves of the house. She also hears a street peddler as he sells his wares. These are signs that life is moving on and is normal. She knows that she must accept her husband’s passing, but she is “fearful” of the emotion that is “creeping out of the sky” and “reaching toward her.” She bargains with herself to control her emotions, and her anger flares up occasionally. She tries to beat the acceptance against her force but she is powerless to do so. She agrees that she will weep again when she sees her husband’s corpse. Her anger twists loving gestures into cruelty. He would not longer use his “powerful will” to bend her into his idea of a wife. She confuses some of his kindness as cruelty that should be punished. “She had loved him”, but “often she had not”, but “what did it matter?” He was gone now never to come back to her. He had left her here alone to suffer through the woes of life by herself. “There would be no one to live for her in the coming years.” Then, she began to look past the “bitter moment” to “a long procession of years to come.” As she reached acceptance, “the vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes.” “She woul...