Grief in facing one's own mortality: Denial and loneliness

The human species is alone in knowing it has to die, said Voltaire, but as much as we rationally know that we all die, we do not really believe it will happen to us. More than ever today the idea of death seems glaringly absurd, immoral even, in an age when we think we can conquer all. We live in a society where we are usually dramatically alone before illness, and even more so in imagining and "living" our death. Hence a grief that cannot be assuaged. Hence a call for a return to fellowship and community.