You're So Strong : On Grief and Letting Go of My Favorite Compliment

"You're doing so well," they tell you. "You're so strong."Meanwhile, you're standing in the middle of your living room, staring at a mountain of grown-man Legos, wondering if it's disrespectful to donate them or insane to keep them. You're on hold with AT&T for the third time this week, trying to explain to a stranger that the account holder doesn't need unlimited data anymore because he's dead.You are holding it together on the outside, but on the inside, you are navigating a map that no one gave you, for a terrain you never wanted to visit. Leslie Harter-Berg knows too well the absurdity of the "admin of death"--the paperwork, the passwords, the phone calls that punctuate the grief.She knows what it's like to have a life that was "pretty darn good" implode into a reality of solo parenting and widowhood at the age of thirty.She knows exactly what it feels like to have to do school drop-off when simply getting out of bed seems insurmountable. In this relatable, poignant, and funny memo