Golby: Oh man this is going to suck
03 February 2019
My parents are dead and I’m starting to get to the age where my friends’ parents are dying, too, and I feel I should know what to say to them. And I never really do: instances of grief, I have found, are unique, two never coming in the same shape, and they can be piercing and hard-edged and they can be like passing through deep, dark treacle or they can be like a long, slow-passing cloud. There is no one single catch-all solution to dealing with the worst life has to throw at you.
But what I do always say is: oh man, this is going to suck.
...And I say: at one point you are going to become keenly aware that everyone is judging you for the way you outwardly behave when someone close to you dies, and I need to tell you that that is a nonsense. You are going to feel a dirty little feeling of guilt. If there’s a long illness involved, there might be this horrible, metallic-tasting feeling of relief, one too hard and real for you to admit to yourself is there. You will do weird things and behave weirdly and not even know it is happening.
—Joel Golby in the Guardian, 2 February 2019. From his book Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant: Modern Life as Interpreted By Someone Who Is Reasonably Bad at Living It (2019)
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