Early Drafts of the Five Stages of Grief
Sources: New Oxford American Dictionary, Macquarie Dictionary
Cathy stared into vacancy, seeing nothing. Her hair was a tumble of untamed curls. Her nose was blobbed with paint. She was wrapped in thought. She puzzled over the squiggles and curves on the paper. Seventeen years later, and she still had the moment filed away in her memory.
She lived in a Podunk town notable for nothing except the girls’ school where she taught art, a stretch of road between nowhere and nowhere. A post office, a DIY store, the tavern just a joint with Formica tables, a vinyl floor, lights over the mirrors. She had been brought up in a family where she felt unappreciated and undervalued. Her father was a tyrant and a bully, and there was a powerful strain of insanity on her mother’s side of the family. She followed her brother’s example and deserted her family, like a pilot jettisoning aircraft fuel. She committed herself to her art, gave herself up to her work. She saw herself as neither wife nor mother—she didn’t need to measure herself against some ideal.
She would always remember the moment they met: a chance encounter by a dumpy little diner with a CLOSED sign hanging in the window, a dirty joke. Their faces lit up, and one dug the other in the ribs. They became friends in the course of their long walks, their world-weary cynical talk. Their admiration for each other was genuine.
It was a miracle that more people hadn’t been killed or injured. Two buildings collapsed, trapping scores of people in the rubble. Through broken sobs, she stared at the card as if she could contact its writer by clairvoyance. Her faithful shadow, a Yorkshire terrier called Heathcliff, appraised himself in the mirror and grunted his thanks as she stroked his furrowed brow. The dog nuzzled up against her.
She swallowed hard, sniffing back her tears. Her body was striped with bands of sunlight.
Sources: New Oxford American Dictionary, Collins English Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary
Sorry, am I disturbing you? I apologize for coming over unannounced like this. Sorry to trouble you. Sorry to barge in on your cozy evening.
The main reason I came today was to say sorry.
I’m sorry, Susan, I screwed up. I’m sorry, I totally didn’t mean it. I’m sorry I blew up at you, I’m sorry. I behaved stupidly, I’m sorry if I offended you. I’m sorry, but I just had to get a load off my mind.
Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry! I’ll do better! Give me a break!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you.
Believe me, Susan, I am truly sorry. I’m terribly sorry. I’m frightfully sorry. I’m dreadfully sorry. I told him I never wanted to see him again, but I didn’t expect him to take it literally. I’m sorry he’s gone.
I’m sorry, but there it is. I ask you to find it in your heart to forgive me.
Sources: New Oxford American Dictionary, Collins COBUILD Primary Learner’s Dictionary, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, NTC’s Dictionary of British Slang