Elaine Byrne: Finding a way to cope with grief is heroic enough for now

John Clarke sharing the details of his profound sadness at the death of his wife Marian Finucane can teach us how to support those grappling with bereavement in a time of lockdown

John Clarke and his late wife, broadcasting legend Marian Finucane

Grief is the form that love takes when someone we love dies. Bereavement is the most painful form of love, because of the disorientation and confusion it causes around how to love someone who is gone for ever.

“What I think, from time to time, is that it’s all been a big mistake. That I got it wrong, and that she’ll come through the door,” John Clarke said in the deeply moving documentary on his ...