How have you made it through the important deaths in your life?

My dad was put in the hospital with advanced cancer on Memorial Day and died on Labor Day of the summer before my senior year of high school. I spent almost every day in the hospital room with him. I worked on a replica of the ship, the Mayflower. It was great therapy to have to concentrate on tying the rigging of the sails with a tweezers. There were some horrible events of well-meaning family members saying the most inappropriate things, like I’d have to take care of my mother after she went insane when my dad died. Or that my boyfriend couldn’t sit with the family at the funeral; but since I wouldn’t let go of his hand, there was nothing anyone could do to boot him out. The poor dear, I think I crushed his hand. I went into a state of shock for maybe three weeks, so there is a great deal I don’t remember. It never occurred to me that his lifestream wasn’t somewhere doing whatever it needed. I was mostly worried about how my mom and I would get along without my dad’s mediation between us. Also, my mom went to bed and wouldn’t eat or get up or anything. I skipped school to go talk to a priest to try to figure out what to do and came home to a cooked meal and a furious mother. She informed me that I was never to skip school again. Apparently, someone had called worried about me and mentioned that I had missed an important test. She never gave up on life again. So, both of us eventually found peace while missing my dad.