{"id":34445,"date":"2021-10-16T00:01:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T07:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=34445"},"modified":"2026-06-06T12:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T12:03:31","slug":"what-is-grief-if-not-love-persevering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/what-is-grief-if-not-love-persevering\/","title":{"rendered":"Widowed: ‘What Is Grief, If Not Love Persevering?’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"what<\/a>
Wanda and Vision in the famous “WandaVision” scene, “What is grief, if not love persevering?” Marvel Comics photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People ask me how I’m doing, how I’m feeling. They wonder what the loss of Jon has been like these past eight months. I try to come up with some words. I find myself thinking, and sometimes saying out loud, that Jon’s death feels like an assault. I feel stricken<\/em>, stricken by grief.<\/p>\n

Grief stricken. That old-timey phrase works for me, especially the stricken part of it. Death is a violent thing. It strikes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It struck Jon down brutally and irreversibly. And in those moments when I let in the reality of my new and unwelcome life, it strikes me down as well.<\/p>\n

There are sunnier ways of thinking about death. Some of them are floating around cyberspace right now. There’s that line<\/a>, for example, from the Disney+ miniseries, “WandaVision.” “What is grief, if not love persevering?”<\/p>\n

It’s a lovely thought.\u00a0I try to think it.\u00a0It would be so nice, after all, to experience Jon’s disappearance in such a rich way. To feel blessed<\/a>, not stricken, by grief<\/p>\n

I’ll feel that way some day, they tell me.<\/p>\n

“What is grief, if not love persevering?” I’m not there yet.<\/p>\n

\"jon-newhall-on-his-deck<\/a>
Jon playing out a game of chess on our new deck in 2020<\/a>. He was there, and then he wasn’t. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"jon-newhall-on-his-deck\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“What is grief, if not love persevering?” — that’s from the TV miniseries “WandaVision.” A nice thought. But I’m not there yet.\u00a0 Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,14],"tags":[187,34,191,2518,29,2519,2419],"class_list":["post-34445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-case-of-the-human-condition","category-widowed","tag-death","tag-dont-miss","tag-grief","tag-grief-stricken","tag-jon","tag-what-is-grief-if-not-love-persevering","tag-widowed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49420,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34445\/revisions\/49420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}