For myself, its that sometimes life gives you two options, "bad" and "worse," and delaying in hopes that a miracle will happen can increase the suffering involved without changing the outcome. And once you've gone through that, hopefully it makes it easier to recognize when that situation comes again. We're fortunate in the affluent countries that those kind of choices aren't a regular part of our lives, something that can be easy to take for granted.

At some point, we have to let go of those we love and go on living, until it is time to join them all in whatever comes after. As David said in Samuel 2:12, "Now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." I think its a misinterpretation to take that as meaning that we shouldn't mourn and grieve, just that its a process and that we can't live in that state in the long term. Some can't get past that, sadly, and die of their broken heart. That happened to one of my uncles after his wife died; you could just see the light had left his life, and it never came back.