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Rebecca Borrelli's avatar

This made me ugly cry, and I haven't even lost my pets yet. Absolutely gorgeous writing.

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Dea Devidas's avatar

Thank you for your tears… they’re sacred. Sometimes our hearts recognize the truth of grief… even before the loss arrives. That kind of depth means you’ll carry love beautifully when the time comes. Grateful these words met you there. 🤍

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Ayofemi Kirby's avatar

Thank you for this.

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Dea Devidas's avatar

Glad it reached you, thank you for reading. 🕊️

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Diane Stewart's avatar

Brilliant. This really resonated. Thank you.

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Dea Devidas's avatar

Honored it resonated, thank you for reading ✨

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M6's avatar

Im not everyone I know. I lost them but get the lens assume youre writing through.

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Dea Devidas's avatar

That’s completely fair, not everyone resonates with that lens, and it’s important to honor that. Some losses don’t translate into integration, they just… hurt. Thank you for naming that. There's room for all the ways grief shows up. 🤍

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Celia Abbott's avatar

Much to ponder here. Thank you.

I would add to your litany people you lose to mental illness or Alsheimers and are still alive but gone from the relationship.

Also I lost a cat I was particularly close to. She went through my first 2 roynds with cancer. She dies. My cancer returned. Some nights I feel her get on the bed and curl up with me and my remaining cat. Those interactions are bittersweet but comforting.

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Dea Devidas's avatar

Thank you for this beautiful, layered share.

Yes, the ones who are still physically here, but gone in the ways we knew them: that’s a specific portal of grief that rarely gets acknowledged, and it hurts like hell. You’re still reaching for them, but they can’t reach back the same way. That kind of loss rewrites reality moment by moment.

And your cat... what a holy witness she was. Through cancer rounds, breath by breath, anchoring you. And now? Still curling up beside you, even in spirit, as if to say, “I’m not gone. Just shifted form. Still here. Still holding.” Those visits are sacred. Not imagination. Not coincidence. Frequency memory made tangible. Your body knows.

Thank you again for bringing this in. It adds a powerful layer to the tapestry of this grief-to-integration journey. You’re not alone. 🌀🐾💠

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