At a time when theatres have been closed for so many months and the daily news is full of the deaths of thousands from Covid and every one of us knows someone affected by these events, it may seem challenging to spend an hour in front of a laptop watching a film about the grief one feels when facing the death of a loved one. Yet this simply shot film Good Grief is beautifully made, emotionally engaging and helps one understand the five stages of grief.
The process of dealing with grief is helped by understanding the natural reactions we face as humans when we experience it. The five stages begin with Denial and spread into Anger and are easy to understand. The third stage is Bargaining where the grieving person clings to threads of hope and feels willing to do anything to alleviate the pain before becoming depressed about the situation and their reactions. Only after these four stages do we pass on to acceptance and can then start to return to a normal life. The time in each phase and the boundaries between them are blurred. Indeed, as we continue in the third lockdown it is easy to see parallels in our own coping mechanisms to the forced restrictions compounded by the grief of losing loved ones.
