The Grief That Lingers: A Son's Lament for His Lost Father.
To Everything a Season, and Not All Things Must Fit to Belong
If you believe in the importance of free speech, subscribe to support uncensored, fearless writing—the more people who pay, the more time I can devote to this. Free speech matters. I am a university professor who was suspended due to a free speech issue, so I am not speaking from the bleachers.
Please subscribe to receive at least two pieces/essays per week with open comments. It’s $8 per month, less than USD 4. Everyone says, "Hey, it’s just a cup of coffee," but please choose my coffee when you come to the Substack counter. Cheers.
As my father aged, I told myself that one day he would not be here. I would have to be ready. I had lost my mother when I was twenty, but it was a slow death; from 10th grade on, she, despite her fighting spirit in the face of cancer, was dying.1
With cancer, does grief bleed off with time? By the time they pass, has most of the grief drained off? Perhaps my memory of the grief for my mother is fractured by the prism of time, or the distortions of aspiratio…




