I had to think about this one for a while before replying...
You have to have faith in times of grief, because what other option is there? Only bad things come when faith is missing. To be grateful for whatever is left, that's important. To stop wishing that God would stop the bullets in midair so you don't get any pain in this life, to realize that the superficial and the deep walk side by side, and not beat yourself up for thinking about sewing on a button when you think you should be pondering the death of your loved one. It happens.
We're all going to go through this death thing. That doesn't make it any easier; as a matter of fact, having Joe Black pay more than a few visits in my life in the past few years has made me stare death in the face and KNOW I'm going to Just End one day- not in that cool, logical knowledge, "yeah, we're all gonna DIE someday, me included"........no, I understood almost completely through and through, that I am going to die. It's going to be an emotion, a comprehension, when it comes, and the best I can hope for is a dignified, painless death. Being an artist and a woman, I wouldn't mind if it were poetic, too.
We all go through death in different ways. I can't say "I know how you feel" to Bethany because our circumstances were different, and we're different individuals, and she's going to go through this differently than I did. Bottom line is, it's gonna be weird- sudden widowhood is really weird.
I can only pray fervently that she'll be given what I was given, the grace of God to not-go-nuts, to still notice the sunlight and all the tiny things in this world that are beautiful. Life is too short to let grief drain out the beauty from our vision. Bethany sees the beauty in life, and I don't want that to change.
-cel