No one can attend to the heavy lifting of mourning, 24 hours a day. Nor should they mourn alone. Shiva exists so friends will come, to remember the deceased, to tell funny and poignant stories about that person.

I hate to whine about myself here, for a few reasons: Lizzie and I promised one another, when we conceived Pandoration,  there would be no personal whining.  Unless of course it was funny.  Another reason …