ABSTRACT
Every television station on that morning of September 11, 2001 carried the same images, and wrestled with the same questions. This chapter illustrates Sara's story, to open a window on the experience of traumatic loss and its impact on human life. Drawing on a contemporary conceptualization of grieving as a process of reconstructing a world of meaning that has been challenged by loss, the chapter conveys some unique features of Sara's response to the tragic murder of her brother and thousands of others in an act of terrorism, and uses them to illustrate the more general category of complicated grief. It focuses on those factors within and around Sara that complicated her bereavement, and those that promoted her germinal transformation in the aftermath of tragedy. Sara's story demonstrates that traumatically bereaved persons can integrate the losses they sustain, and in many cases move from a position of horror and helplessness to one of hope and healing.
