This episode of Nurah Speaks is a deeply personal reflection on love, loss and what I've learned from grief.

In Episode 260, “Losing Ellen,” I chronicle the story of losing my grandmother, Ellen, and walk listeners through my experience before and after her passing along with what grief has revealed to me along the way.

Losing my grandmother was an excruciating loss—filled with agony and heartbreak—but also with moments of profound love and deep gratitude. Those who have accompanied a loved one through their final days understand this painful irony: the trauma of loss co-occurring with all the beautiful, tender and loving moments just before.

On Nurah Speaks, we do not shy away from life's hard but important truths. Death can arrive in a single moment or it can unfold slowly through a series of moments of months or even years.

How we manage death— the acceptance of it as a normal part of life—can help us survive the very, very lows while honoring the love that remains.

This episode is for anyone navigating grief, learning how to carry the love that remains and discovering who they are now, after loss.

If you watch the live recording of this episode on the Nurah Speaks Youtube channel, I include some of my favorite photos of my grandmother with friends and family.

WHEN GREAT TREES FALL

Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,

rocks on distant hills shudder,

lions hunker down

in tall grasses,

and even elephants

lumber after safety.

When great trees fall

in forests,

small things recoil into silence,

their senses

eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,

the air around us becomes

light, rare, sterile.

We breathe, briefly.

Our eyes, briefly,

see with

a hurtful clarity.

Our memory, suddenly sharpened,

examines,

gnaws on kind words

unsaid,

promised walks

never taken.

Great souls die and

our reality, bound to

them, takes leave of us.

Our souls,

dependent upon their

nurture,

now shrink, wizened.

Our minds, formed

and informed by their

radiance,

fall away.

We are not so much maddened

as reduced to the unutterable ignorance

of dark, cold

caves.

And when great souls die,

after a period peace blooms,

slowly and always

irregularly. Spaces fill

with a kind of

soothing electric vibration.

Our senses, restored, never

to be the same, whisper to us.

They existed. They existed.

We can be. Be and be

better. For they existed.

For more information on grief, I included two helpful links below:

•https://grief.com/the-five-stages-of-grief/•https://grief.com/10-best-worst-things-to-say-to-someone-in-grief/

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