We cannot line up our losses alongside each other and expect someone to confirm whose is worst. I know I have felt utterly broken after the end of a three-month relationship, and only mildly sad after a two-and-a-half-year one finished. I know that for my dad losing his dog was as devastating as losing a family member. I know friends who found the early days of parenthood more painful than their miscarriage, and others who found watching their parents grow old more difficult than watching them die. Heartbreak is too tailored and too sprawling for comparison to be of use to anyone.
