Loss story

Loss has many layers and complexities.The experience itself is known socially while it registers emotionally, in the body. Both the social and the embodied experience comprise the subject matter that we seek to understand, perhaps even "know," as it plays its part in our lives. This knowledge arises in personal reflection and in the stories that are told after the event. In this respect stories are an integral part of the loss experience. The present article was written 5 years after the death of my father (and was itself triggered by another loss experience). Like the loss experience, stories of loss can be enriching, perhaps even transformative, when they communicate intellectually, emotionally, and viscerally.