"To lose your father is to lose the one whose guidance and help you seek, who supports you like a tree trunk supports its ...

Beneath these discussions lies a profound yearning—a hallmark of grief—for the father archetype: a protective, powerful, mature, and caring energy that provides guidance and security.

Letters sent by my father to my mother at her family home in Chicago during World War II, written in his own hand on US Navy letterhead, the precise print of an engineer, angled slightly to the right.

Because it won’t be me.” My thoughts snagged on her words — her focus on “the people who are grieving.” That was me. I had only been focused on my dad, and how he could be real again.