Srinagar, Feb. 13 -- Loss does not arrive gently. It announces itself either with a sudden, shattering blow or with a slow, anticipatory ache that follows a long diagnosis that teaches a family, day by day, what helplessness truly feels like. It tears through the fabric of daily life.

When loss follows illness, grief begins long before death. It lives in hospital corridors heavy with antiseptic air, in the rhythmic beeping of machines and in the silent bargaining of prayers whispered beside a bed. You witness the torment unfold: treatments that sap strength, hope flickering amid relentless pain. It lives in watching a father or loved one, once strong and protective writhe in pain, diminish in energy and slowly surrender control over his ...