​The funeral ends.

Chairs are stacked.
Cars pull away.
Messages slow down.

The flowers begin to brown at the edges.

​And suddenly, it is quiet.

​“Grief brain” is not a metaphor.
It is a real, research-supported cognitive state that affects how people think, decide, remember, and cope after a death.

​Grief brain refers to the temporary neurological and psychological changes that occur in acute bereavement, 

We often talk about funerals as if they are just a formality, a symbolic event, or a matter of personal taste. From the perspective of how humans actually work, that misses the point. A funeral is not decoration. It is essential social infrastructure.