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I Asked 20–30-year-olds Who Lost Parents What the Second Year of Grief Feels Like
Most of us agree that the second year can be harder than the first.
To be fair, I had been warned. Yet, the pain of the second year knocked me down in an earth-shattering way.
The anniversary of my mom’s death came and went. I was thrust back into the start of the school year soon after. I didn’t have time to process what entering the second year meant. But, over time, I soon started to realize all of the nuances of Year 2. And I didn’t like them.
To me, the griever, a year removed from my mom’s death is still very fresh. To me, the lifelong journey of my grief is just beginning. To everyone else who doesn’t get it, a year is so long ago.
You start questioning your actions. “Am I still talking about her death way too much?” “Do people think I’m milking my sadness?” “Why does this still feel so hard?”
The answer to that last question is it feels hard because it is hard. The second year of grief can be so much harder than the first, despite what people believe.
Here is what 20–30-year-olds had to say about the second year after losing their parents.
