New Delhi, May 21 -- My mother-in law passed away last month in her sleep due to a cardiac arrest. She was 72 and struggled with hypertension and diabetes for years, but there were no signs or symptoms that made it seem like she was going to die so suddenly. Grief seemed sneaky and while a part of me felt that she had an uncomplicated death, another part felt that she still had many more years to live. As I sit and think of all the ways grief impacts us, I have realised that it doesn't have a fixed pattern or follow any orders. It works in ways it wants to, and it shows up in different ways for different people in the family.

Twenty years of working as a psychotherapist, and I was still not prepared for loss. Grief showed up as anxiety, ...