"Grief is part of life. It's an expression of one's love for that person, and it's totally healthy and predictable and understandable," she says. "The interesting thing about the pretence of certainty about the after life that religious people indulge is that it isolates truly grieving people." 'If you want kids to grow up knowing that the harsh realities of life to prepare them, i think you should not only get him a dog, but get him a very sick dog, mitgampished,' he adds.