I had a some questions while reading your werewolf fic of Price. Dovie seems to have trouble figuring out grief, it also seems like you allude to Dovie's mother (Mama Dovie?) struggling to accept her mothers (Granny's) death. How she kind of just broke down and Dovie didn't really do much about it? Just held her mother as she sobbed. At least, that's how I read it. I'm really liking the fic so far and can't wait to see more, I'm just very intrigued by how you are executing this!
Hello lovebug,
I'm so glad you're curious and I am more than willing to delve deep into this. I want to note; I absolutely love the idea of Dovie's mother being dubbed as "Mama Dovie", its adorable! As we know, grief is a very fickle thing to go through and is different for everyone. I, personally, have lost three family members in my life time (an aunt, a grandfather, a great-grandfather), albeit I was not close with two of them and very distrusting of one of them. Therefore, for me, their deaths did not affect me as much or elicit what most people view as a "proper grieving response" (my therapist begs to differ, but I will be taking pages from her book while explaining this.) Though I will note something I've come to the realization of recently;
I am currently grieving someone who is still living.
I use my own personal experiences in my writing, in one way or another. Grief is painful, heart wrenching to the point that it sometimes may feel as though your own heart has been ripped from your chest and laid bare before you. For some, they may feel nothing but numbness, simply acknowledging that person is dead and moving on. I have been on both sides of the coin.
Though, Dovie's response is finicky. When Mama Dovie received the news, Dovie immediately packed her things and went to her parents. Mama Dovie was grief stricken, of course, sobbing and in denial of her own mothers death. All the while, Dovie is putting on a brave face and essentially compartmentalizing her feelings for the sake of her mother. Dovie understood her mothers pain, but in that moment struggled to be at the emotional stand point her mother was at. Dovie sheds tears, yes, but as we can tell- Dovie has outbursts of emotion, bottling it up until she can't hold it in. Which is exactly why she marches up to the Captain's cottage and rips him a new one; because she's struggling to get a grip on her emotions and think logically due to dealing with her own form of grief. I've described Dovie's grief as a sick feeling; she's constantly surrounded by faces her Granny saw on a daily basis, lives within the walls that literally smell like her grandmother but her grandmother isn't there, which- in a way- fucks with Dovie.
There are layers to grief, dear lovebug. Grief comes in different shapes and forms for everyone. Mama Dovie and Dovie show two different forms of grief, and everyone will get to see what other forms of grief there is to be shown as I keep posting chapters. :)