loss Archives - Longreads

Hope Is the Thing with Feathers

A lesson on loss, love, and raising chickens.

“‘Chris is dead.’ Just like that, I was empty.”

On sisterhood, addiction, and family ghosts.

“The singer-songwriter believes that we are deeply flawed, impermanent creatures who can sometimes do extraordinary things.”

You made a fool of the words “feminine” and “masculine” — you were neither, you were both.

“I began to wonder if running off with a blackjack team…wasn’t my way of throwing down the gauntlet to my father…who had gambled all his life.”

“Earth is losing its memory.”

“When my wife and daughter were killed in Iran’s downing of Flight PS752, my life was thrown into total darkness.”

“Digital clones of the people we love could forever change how we grieve.”

“Try as I might, there is no material stronger than kinship.”