Edel Coffey: I prefer to think that our loved ones are everywhere after they die
Edel Coffey. Photo: Ray Ryan
I bumped into a friend last week who I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic began. It’s interesting bumping into people again after so much time has passed, people you haven’t been in touch with via text or email or online. There’s a diffidence to the questions as we ask about loved ones, the state of affairs of each other’s lives, hoping the answers won’t be bad, wondering what kind of damage has been wrought by the last two years, wondering what kind of wound we might be opening up by asking.
And we all know these questions are coming. For many of us, we have even developed quick, glossy answers that ensure the conversation moves along. ‘And how is your mother?’ is one that must lead to the explanation that she has died, followed by some gentle soothing of the interrogator who now feels bad for asking.
