Grace is Gone - A Painful Process of Grieving

Going through a loss of a father is never easy; what more when you are a father who is obliged to break the news to their own children that their mother has died. The hardest thing about this death is that Grace, Stanley's wife and Heidi and Dawn's mother, died thousands of miles away in a war torn country. It is rather symbolic, albeit its dark nature, as for someone who is loved by their lived ones dying in a nation that is void of love. Even as they were far apart, the power of love can travel across the world, even in a country filled with nothing but hate and despair.

It was interesting to see how Stanley struggles with telling his and Grace's two daughters on the demise of their mother. It was sort of like a leverage system to balance the happy emotions with the incoming tsunami of emotions such despair and grief. He tries his best to make sure his daughters are having the time of their lives such as bringing them to the Enchanted Garden and going out for meals together, as a means to avoid his own pain and sparing his daughters the pain. Going to places far from home is as if he was running away from the hard reality of his wife's death, and he wants to take his kids along too. But eventually, truth will catch up, and no matter how unpleasant or sad the news is, they have the right to know about their mother's death, and because they are dealing with death together, they will find solidarity and support to grow out of this pain together, and despite of the loss of a loved one, their love amongst the three of them will grow even stronger. It's like a balance of the universe; when there is loss, more love will grow from it.

This movie reminds me alot about my own experience, as my mum has the burden of informing my grandmother that her son has died from cancer. But in the end, she chose not to tell my grandmother because she is worried that my grandmother will not be able to take it. There is a Chinese saying about the tragic scene where 'a white haired person has to send off a black haired person', which means the tragic scene of parents having to conduct the final rights of their kids. Hence, relating to this movie, breaking the news of a death is contextual, it is easier to break the news to someone who is of a young age as they are more mentally and physically resilient, opposed to an elderly who may not be able to accept the tragic news of death, because it is possible for someone to 'die of a broken heart'.