Itzel Shah

About

The person who usually finds me is the one who organized everything. They handled the paperwork, the arrangements, the phone calls to relatives, and they held it together impeccably for everyone else. Then the tasks ran out and there was nothing left to do but feel it. That collapse after the busy period is the most common reason people contact me about bereavement, and it takes almost everyone by surprise. We start by acknowledging how much labor you performed while numb. Then we make room for the part you postponed, which is usually waiting exactly where you left it, entirely undiminished by the delay. Before this I spent years in nonprofit and social-work adjacent roles, where I sat with a lot of families on the worst days of their lives. Very little frightens me now. If the tasks have run out and you are suddenly not coping, that is exactly the moment to get in touch.