There is an old legend from India about a woman whose only child had died. In her distress she went to a prophet to ask for her child back. The prophet told her to go and get a handful of rice from a house into which death had not come. If she could get hold of rice in this way, he promised to give her the child back. So she went from door to door asking the question, “Are you all here around the table — father, mother, children — none missing?” But always the answer came back that there were empty chairs in each house. As she continued on, her grief and sorrow softened as she found that death and sadness had visited all those families. And the more she shared the grief of others, the more she was able to bear her own.
That’s why the Bible tells us also to:‘Carry each other’s burdens.’