Dear Ravenclaw,

Thanks for keeping in touch with us. Everything you are feeling is very normal but oh, so painful. It will take time to adapt to all the changes and you are so correct, life HAS changed and will never be the way it was. (Sorry about the poor grammar) I know that sentence is grammatically incorrect.

Did your husband use a particular soap or aftershave? If so, you may want to put some of it on the bed to regain the smell until you are ready to let it go. I, too, missed the fragrance I associated with my lost one.

The stages of grief are not "steps" we take to get to a place beyond grief. We seem to revisit them all over and over and some simultaneously until we develop ways to cope and begin a different life than the one we know with our loved one.

It is not uncommon to have some feelings of denial even a month later. Numbness will stick with you for some time, also. We can surround ourselves with many people and still feel VERY alone. Your loss is very personal and no one feels as YOU did about your loved one. Every relationship is unique unto itself and so is the grief one feels for their loss. The symptoms of grief are shared by many but your relationship was unique.

Give yourself time. A month is but a second along the road of grieving while at the same time the pain may seem like an eternity. We will walk with you. You will smile again but until then, know that you are in our thoughts.