by Reuben M. Chow, Living-With-Grief.com

I used to spend maybe a few hours a week with my parents. By “spend”, I mean we were physically together; how much quality time there actually was, is another question altogether.

I don’t think this situation is unique to me, or my relationship with my parents. Many of us, especially in the busy and crazy lives in the first world today, spend very little time with our loved ones, and even less actual quality time with them.

And, in the past, when I wasn’t physically with them, I can’t say I thought of them very much either.

Since they passed on, however, things have changed drastically. It’s like there’s always a song, a place, a statement, or just something just somewhere around the corner which would remind me of them.

Ever since they have physically departed this world, it’s like they no longer have to be with be, to be with me, if you know what I mean.

Now, every so often, I will think of them. I will hear their voices, see their smiles, and remember things which they had told and taught me. And these memories have an impact that is surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, powerful.

What I have lost of them physically, I seem to have gained, in greater degree, in other ways.

It’s almost like, having departed, they are now with me more so than ever, almost every moment of every day which I am conscious and alive.

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