In 1969, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist, introduced the five stages of grief in her book, On Death and Dying. She identified the stages as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Interestingly, it has been realized that these stages are applicable to any loss, including an illness, losing a job, divorce, relocation, changing schools, and death. What I find particularly striking about her philosophy is that the stages do not necessarily occur in a linear fashion, nor are all the stages experienced by those undergoing a loss. I had always hoped when you arrived at acceptance, the task would be complete. Hoping doesn’t make it so. This ...