Giref is a life long journey

I friend recently recommended a book, Beloved on Earth: 150 Poems of Grief and Gratitude.
One of the poems that spoke to me was entitled, Poem in October by Andrea Hollander Budy. It reminded me that grief is our companion for a life time.
"It was my twenty-third year and heaven
broke away from my reach as I stood
at her grave. Rain carved
the morning's stone face into the earth,
and the sky grayed and lowered
until they were one. Back by the trees
men smoked, as if they had nothing
better to do. But I knew as soon as I left
they would cover even
the roses my father, brother and I
had tossed upon her as if our wishing
could do what prayer had not.
When I finally left, I thought her
gone. I am fifty-four. I was wrong.