The Emptiness of Widowhood

One of the first days that I got to put on a suit and shed my maintenance role at the funeral home, I encountered an image of why the funeral business can be demoralizing. I was helping an elderly, just-widowed man carry his wedding picture out to his car after his wife's funeral. We walked out together and didn't say anything. As we approached his van, he looked at me with the saddest eyes I have seen so far in my life. 

"We were married for 60 years and now she's gone." That's what he said. How am I supposed to be optimistic about life when it's seemingly just a storm of sadness and loneliness that gets worse and worse until we finally phase out? He lived the "American Dream", married his love and lived the middle-class life of American folklore. But in spite of it all, he stood there with those empty, frightened eyes as he slowly digested the fact that his life partner is gone forever. I guess we're all truly alone in the end.