After her mother died in 2016, Patty Pavia of Philadelphia, who is in her late 50s, drifted away from her brother and sister. “When we did talk, it was mostly logistical, like settling the estate, sorting photos, arranging the headstone. I assumed the distance was just part of the grieving process, but the quiet lingered. We didn’t argue or have a falling out. We just faded into our separate lives.”
She expected that, when her father passed in 2020, they might grow further apart. Instead, the opposite occurred. Coming together to plan the memorial service and going through his belongings, “we rediscovered our bond,” she says. “I was flabbergasted by how quickly we reconnected, once we gave ourselves the space and time to do it.”
