Grief for a friend

I sit here at work thinking that I should be doing stuff, but forget that it's Friday! I find my thoughts keep turning to a true friend of my heart and the pain she is going through right now. She told me yesterday that her son had hit a deer while riding his motorcycle, without his helmet, and that today they were going to take him off life support. I don't know if they did that or not, but I still keep going back to what if it were my child? What if it were me...

I'm back at this, 8 hours after she told me they took him off at noon and she was waiting on his body to come home. I don't know how to help her, I don't know what to say. I know I was trained for this in school, but dammit, that was to help strangers. How do I use my education for friends? I want to hug this woman, but I know she would deck me if I did. I looked at her this afternoon and noticed she had shrunk. I know it's the grief, she's taking it inside her, folding in on herself and that scares me. If she doesn't grieve, if she just tucks it down in and attempts to be strong "for everyone else" like I think she will, what will happen to her? Yes, I'm being selfish, I don't want to see anything happen to this woman, she is too important to me, to so many people in so many ways.

I grieve for her, for what she's lost. I grieve for me, because I know this will change her, like nothing else she has endured has, and I know the person I admire will still be there...inside her, somewhere.

I love you, you crazy old lady. I may never say this to your face (because I know how it makes you feel) but I hope to show you it in my actions.