The website told us to be prepared for good days and bad days. What the website didn’t tell us was how aggressively the bad days would eclipse the good. It also failed to mention that the scale we use to gauge “good” vs. “bad” would evolve over the course of the illness. That we would be more and more generous in describing days as “good.“ Perhaps grading on a curve is required for our sanity.
The website didn’t prepare us for all the emotions: anger, sadness, and exhaustion.
When the good days come again for a few hours you forget she’s dying.
At times the universality of death brings some small comfort. Sometimes it brings nothing.