The picture shows all anyone needs to know about human grief in a single image. Yvonne Wicker's father is holding his wife, whose face is buried in his shirt. His head is cocked skyward. His mouth is pulled down in a grimace. The cords stand out on his neck. His eyes are squeezed shut.

Standing behind them, next to a long black Cadillac with Hurst Mortuary on the side, is a young man in what appears to be a high school letter jacket. He's wearing a baseball cap; the brim obscures his lowered face. Danny guesses it's Yvonne's kid brother.

Danny thinks he's looking at something the movies and TV dramas rarely express or even comprehend—the human toll, the hammer of grief and the stupidity of loss, the wreckage.

His eyes fill with tears.

—Stephen King: You Like It Darker

Holly Margl is the award-winning author of Witnessing Grief; Inviting Trauma and Loss to Our Coaching Conversations, An Enneagram Perspective, coach, coach mentor, and trainer specializing in grief, trauma, and the Enneagram.