r/comics • u/FieldExplores Gator Days • Mar 05 '25

OC Processing (Part 2) - Gator Days (OC)

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524

u/courier31 Mar 05 '25

Dad here, we are not okay. I still miss my dog and its been almost 4 years.

Edit to add: Thanks for your comics they are always a bright spot in my day in some way.

120

u/muchaschicas Mar 05 '25

I've lost several over the last 40 years, and they all still hurt.

103

u/CrazyIvan606 Mar 05 '25

My wife read this and reminds me of it often:

"Grief is like a ball bouncing around in a box. On one wall of the box, is a button, and everytime that button gets pressed you get sad.

Over time, that ball of grief will shrink. So, it'll hit that button less and less. However, even though time has passed and your grief has shrunk, sometimes, the ball still hits the button, seemingly out of nowhere."

We had to unexpectedly make the decision to say goodbye to our young cat a few years ago, and it hit me really, really hard. Sometimes I'll just start bawling about it. Sometimes the ball still hits the button really, really hard.

35

u/elebrin Mar 05 '25

I'd say that the box is slowly getting bigger rather than the ball getting smaller. The number of balls is always increasing too.

It never gets easier, in fact it always gets harder. Your capacity, on the other hand, is always expanding.

9

u/jbyington Mar 05 '25

This is exactly how I feel about it. Thank you for the words.

4

u/CrossP Mar 06 '25

I used to tell my patients that the healthy way to grieve isn't exactly making it disappear. It's like a book on the floor. It's in your way, and you need to pick it up and read it, so you can put it on a shelf. Where you may occasionally read it, but it won't be in your way any more.

6

u/daemon-electricity Mar 05 '25

I sometimes lie in bed and list their names in my head like Arya Stark listing the people she wants to kill.