Many ask: How's the grief. ("The Grief," as I've come to think of it.) As in "how's work?" "How's the boyfriend?" "How's the new house?" "Patti: How's The Grief?" As if it's a separate compartment of my life. Something I tend to, like a garden. Or something I can pull out of a briefcase, snap open, snap shut. Or a separate entity, even--a companion. I suppose it is most like a companion. Quite a faithful one, it seems--always hanging around.