I’m sorry for your loss.
It’s the first thing someone will tell you when you’ve lost a loved one. Why? Because, what else is there to say?
When my bāchan passed away I was confronted with the five stages of grief. However, I soon discovered this method of mourning has been misconstrued from its original purpose. Thrown into the belly of grief, I was constantly reminded that once I moved on from depression, I would finally reach the acceptance stage. But it doesn’t work like that. Nothing anyone could say or offer made me feel better. Being in this state for so long, I began to feel like a zombie. Therefore, I created the term “grief zombie”, which I describe as someone who has been infected by grief and becomes emotionally and socially numb. Using softer colors and less gory imagery, I hope to rewrite the narratives around grief and zombies, to show that grief’s zombification isn’t a terrifying virus, but a normal and necessary state of grief. Thus, I invite my fellow grievers to a less universal experience on grief and zombies illustrating how I’ve responded to, I'm sorry for your loss, through my hands.
