The Grief of Being Left

The Sky Is Everywhere

This flow traces Lennie’s survivor’s guilt, her difficulty accepting happiness, and her realization that remembering Bailey does not require rejecting life.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

Ordinary Time Continues Ordinary Time Continues from "The Sky Is Everywhere". Ordinary Time Continues The world carries on Lennie is disturbed that people go to school, work, and restaurants after Bailey dies.

Ordinary Time Continues from "The Sky Is Everywhere". Ordinary Time Continues The world carries on Lennie is disturbed that people go to school, work, and restaurants after Bailey dies.

Ordinary Time Continues The world carries on Lennie is disturbed that people go to school, work, and restaurants after Bailey dies. Their ordinary routines make her feel that the world has failed to recognize the scale of the loss. A moral confusion She reads the return of sunlight and daily life as evidence of indifference. Her grief makes survival itself seem disloyal to the dead.

Joy Feels Wrong Joy Feels Wrong from "The Sky Is Everywhere". Joy Feels Wrong A new happiness Lennie wakes after a night with Joe and realizes that Bailey was not her first thought.

Joy Feels Wrong from "The Sky Is Everywhere". Joy Feels Wrong A new happiness Lennie wakes after a night with Joe and realizes that Bailey was not her first thought.

Joy Feels Wrong A new happiness Lennie wakes after a night with Joe and realizes that Bailey was not her first thought. The discovery produces guilt even as she feels exhilarated. Love and absence She wonders whether Bailey somehow led Joe to her. The thought offers comfort but also shows how difficult it is to accept joy without assigning it a debt.

The Unmade Future The Unmade Future from "The Sky Is Everywhere". The Unmade Future Grief without distraction After Joe leaves, Lennie imagines the child Bailey never met and the years the sisters will not share.

The Unmade Future from "The Sky Is Everywhere". The Unmade Future Grief without distraction After Joe leaves, Lennie imagines the child Bailey never met and the years the sisters will not share.

The Unmade Future Grief without distraction After Joe leaves, Lennie imagines the child Bailey never met and the years the sisters will not share. She can no longer rely on romance to keep grief at a distance. The self left alone She realizes that she must live as herself, without Bailey and without using another person’s arms as shelter from loss.

A Grave Visited A Grave Visited from "The Sky Is Everywhere". A Grave Visited Facing physical absence Lennie visits Bailey’s grave for the first time, confronting images she had avoided since the funeral.

A Grave Visited from "The Sky Is Everywhere". A Grave Visited Facing physical absence Lennie visits Bailey’s grave for the first time, confronting images she had avoided since the funeral.

A Grave Visited Facing physical absence Lennie visits Bailey’s grave for the first time, confronting images she had avoided since the funeral. Toby accompanies her without insisting that the fear is irrational. A new form of remembrance She leaves Gram’s letters for Bailey and finds Toby’s ring. The visit brings objects of love into the same place as the reality of death.

Grief Carried Forward Grief Carried Forward from "The Sky Is Everywhere". Grief Carried Forward Loss accepted as lasting Lennie recognizes that grief will continue because her love for Bailey will continue.

Grief Carried Forward from "The Sky Is Everywhere". Grief Carried Forward Loss accepted as lasting Lennie recognizes that grief will continue because her love for Bailey will continue.

Grief Carried Forward Loss accepted as lasting Lennie recognizes that grief will continue because her love for Bailey will continue. She no longer expects healing to mean returning to who she was before. Life made possible She chooses to meet the world with daring and joy, taking Bailey’s influence into a future Bailey cannot share. Remembering and living become compatible.

The day after Bailey’s funeral

The morning after Joe and Lennie’s first night together

The night Joe and Lennie separate

Near the end of the summer

Near the end of the summer after Lennie challenges for first chair