I Know How You Feel

February 10, 2022

Losing a beloved, long-term spouse.

People can suffer similar pain, and some will say, “I know how you feel.”

But we don’t.

Linda and I built our own marriage—crafted a love that was wholly ours. The bond we shared was unlike any other in this world. That great forty-year love—and still continuing—between Linda and me.

Yes, like many others, I feel the overwhelming grief. I understand the soul-bleeding pain that often accompanies it. Yet no one can know our love—the one shared between a husband and wife—which stands alone, set apart in its intimacy, known only to those two.

No one can truly comprehend the love that was ours. For there has never been, nor will there ever be, another like it.

So it is with Linda and me: pure, sacred, complete, and unique. A love with its own everlasting fingerprints upon our souls.

No one can fully understand another’s loss.

— Tony Pritchard