Allen Berman

var addthis_product = 'wpp-252'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};A couple of years ago a friend’s grandmother died. She was in her early 90s, so he was—predictably—”comforted” with the cliched words of, “She lived a long life” and “God was good to her” and the like. Comfort? To hell with comfort. For a very understandable reason, we humans struggle with the deaths of others. We’re not sure how to react so, generally, we react by spewing the same mindless (yet well-intended) blatherings that our ancestors spewed. If someone died young, “he’s with God.” If someone dies while in the military, “he passed with honor.” If someone died old, “he lived a long and fruitful life.” What’s missing here—what’s too often missing here—is that, even if one dies in his 80s, 90s or 100s, it’s still sad and still heartbreaking. We’re talking about the co...