KatyK Thank you for your post and I take it in the vein it was meant.
I know I will be shot down by those who have lost loved ones through death, I lost my dear dad, very suddenly & unexpectedly, I was in deep shock & it took me a year to come to terms with his passing, and a life long friend lost her only Son in the same way & was completely devastated, & still is, years on.
I've thought long and hard about this, and in my opinion, I think that maybe,in our situation of estrangement, it is actually harder to move on & heal, as it is an open wound that can never heal. With death, after a year or more, you can start to think of all the happy memories you shared with your loved one, you can lay flowers on the grave, you can 'talk' loving words of how you miss and love them still. But with estrangement from a loved one, there is none of this, but the added burden of rejection, the trashing of all those happy shared memories and in my case, in one fail swoop, in one moment, I lost my baby daughter, my precious GD & GS and also my S. Although after 2yrs & 3mnths I say I have turned a corner and except I will never see them all again, still I think of them each & every day and I congratulate myself if I go a whole hour or dare I say two, without thinking of them!