Can you go on after that? Yes you can, RavenC. And you MUST go on. Let me provide you with no reassurance whatsoever about how much it hurts. There are no words for how much it hurts. It hurts more than you think is possible and then it goes on hurting some more. And for hours and for days your tears pour down like falling rain and you cry yourself to sleep and then you wake up crying, and you cry on the bus and you cry on the telephone and then you really break down and you lie down on the floor, screaming and wailing, until you lose your voice and pass out from exhaustion. And slowly slowly you start to live again,
But something huge has changed in your life. And all that pain came from love. And you see the value of every human life and the beauty of love and the discovery of your own life, and you start to get really strong and go straight back in to life, in honor of your loved one - because that is what he or she would have wanted you to do - live the life we have been given with the best of who we are and not the worst of who we are. When a loved one dies, you never again have to wonder what matters.