Grief Will Wait

Tyler Perry was on Oprah recently. Or not. She doesn’t have a show anymore. Maybe this was years ago, I don’t know, it’s the internet.

Let’s try this again.

Oprah Daily posted to Instagram recently a portion of an interview with Tyler Perry and they were talking about grief and he had the most profound thoughts for a woman who recently lost her mother. The gist of it was: “I tried to work it away, I tried to drink it away, all it did was wait for me to finish.”

Ain’t that the truth. Grief will wait for you to finish. And in a weird way, over the last twelve years, grief has become a friend. Yeah, it shows up at the most inconvenient times. I cried at my day job not too long ago because I swear this lovely little old couple was my parents and when they walked away I lost it. Then, just yesterday, the old guy in another white haired couple made the most ridiculous dad joke as I was dialing out to call a customer. I had to hang up because I was laughing so hard.

Earlier that same day, I cried in Starbucks with a friend talking about death and trauma and grief. Yes, I cry all the damn time. But it doesn’t upset me the same way any more. Grief is here, ever present. No longer the enemy, more like a friend who keeps it real.

My relationship with Grief has changed. A lot.

This makes me think I should revisit That’s Why I Hold On. Maybe it’s remained a one act play for so long for a reason. Maybe the second and third acts have been waiting for me to mature into them.

Maybe.