ABSTRACT
Death has paid a visit. Devastating deprivation assaults my entire existence. I am in agony. Grief is swallowing me up. Since time immemorial, humankind knows it is sorrow’s season, the time to mourn. Our haste to forget, documented in the academic debate about continuing bonds, merely reflects ignorance about the a-temporal and indestructible dimensions of experience. It shows a poverty of wisdom about the human predicament. We ordinary humans must learn how to live with loss and with the persistent presence of our deceased beloved in memory and in our actions (Lingis, 2007) The deceased is not gone like a piece of equipment or any ready-to-hand item. I will remain with her continually, in a mode of respectful solicitude (Heidegger, 1927/1962).
