The Mail That Keeps Coming

For many people, receiving mail addressed to someone who has died is jarring. The first envelope is hard. You see their name and everything feels off. People react in different ways. Some people set the mail aside and never open it. Some call a sibling and cry. Some throw it away.

When someone dies, we expect grief, sadness, loss, and memories. What we don’t expect is how much of that grief gets tangled up in ordinary things. A trip to the mailbox, or a name on an envelope or a stack of papers that no one has the energy to face.