Memorial Days

Many cultural and religious traditions make space for grief, urging the bereaved to withdraw from daily life and tend to their sorrow. But in today’s world, grief is often met not with stillness, but with bureaucracy and to-do lists. That’s exactly what confronted Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than thirty years, Tony Horwitz—just sixty years old, seemingly healthy and full of life—collapsed and died on a Washington, D.C. sidewalk.

As young foreign correspondents, they reported from conflict zones before settling into a quieter rhythm on Martha’s Vineyard, raising two sons, writing books, sharing meals and savoring sunsets by the sea. Their days were full of meaning, laughter, and love—until Memorial Day 2019, when a single phone call shattered everything.

In the aftermath, the demands were relentless. With no room to grieve, the shock and sorrow only deepened. Three years later, Geraldine finally stepped away—from work, from people, from routine—and flew to a remote island off the coast of Australia. There, in the presence of wind, sea, and silence, she began to reflect on how cultures around the world honor the dead—and to ask what rituals she might create for herself to begin building a life shaped not just by loss, but by memory, meaning and love.