Armbands

A woman who had lived in Australia reported that people there wore black armbands, possibly for about a month, to indicate that they were grieving. She liked this custom because, as she said, it helped people to be a little kinder in their interactions with the griever. I’ve often thought that it’s too bad that we no longer have this unspoken information conveyed from people wearing black armbands or black clothing here in America (although I realize that my own fashion sense relies on being able to regularly wear black by choice. Your world has changed when someone dies, and sometimes it’s just jarring that the rest of the world just keeps going on.

-Monalisa Gilbert