Stages of grief

I think the "five stages of grief" is overly simplistic and perhaps insulting to those who are dealing with profound loss. The first three stages aren't sequential. They kind of happen at the same time and feed off each other... denial, anger, bargaining. Then the depression hits and it utterly overwhelms. Some people never climb out of this stage, but most do, eventually, and this is where I believe God intervenes, to get you from depression to acceptance. Sometimes it's quick and dramatic. Sometimes it's as complex as the universe and takes generations to get you there.

Tucker and Mary have identical arcs in Gray Song. They both grieve and both act as though they are in denial, but really it's depression. The whole story is about divine intervention from unusual places (dogs, nature, music, archangels) to get Mary and Tucker to find each other again, to get them from stage four depression to stage five acceptance.

Gray Song available today on Amazon.