Shrine of the Immaculate Virgin
Mount Loretto, Staten Island

It isn’t until you experience the death of someone close to you that you decide what you believe–what makes sense to your heart, what makes sense to your hurt. Because what is and the life of your emotions don’t intersect sometimes. Resourceful buggers, some emotions can sustain themselves in a myriad of ways, both consciously and unconsciously. Even when you don’t want them to, even when they return that sharp pain to your chest and, for me, my right forearm. (Weird, I know!) The heartache caused by death is heartache at its apex. Its definitude is an abrupt end to a line you thought would just go on… because that’s what lines usually do.

I put the Shrine of the Immaculate Virgin on today’s Staten Island itinerary because I knew my friend needed to step into the potent grief of others for comfort. It was a beautiful few minutes.