10/05/2026
Sometimes grief catches you before your brain even knows whatâs happening.
Grief triggers are WEIRD.
Some of them you know are coming.
A birthday.
An anniversary.
A song.
A place.
And sometimes youâre just grocery shopping with your daughter on a completely ordinary day when you turn around and, for half a secondâŠ
you think you see your husband.
Thatâs what happened to me.
I didnât fall apart.
I didnât cry in the middle of the store.
I just stopped.
Got a lump in my throat.
Stared at this poor unsuspecting man for probably a little too long. đ
And then I kept shopping.
I think thatâs something I understand about grief now that I couldnât have understood in the beginning:
Not every trigger has to derail you to be real.
Some knock you to your knees.
Some make you smile.
Some bring back a memory you havenât thought about in years.
And some simply interrupt an ordinary moment and remind you how deeply you still miss him.
Six years later, grief can still catch me completely off guard.
It just doesnât always carry me away with it anymore.