Jehan Nassif, 18 years old, died of meningicoccal disease. The refrain in the media was "her death could have been avoided". The NSW Opposition has taken up the cry. Leader Peter Debnam has promised a no confidence vote against the government's Minister for Health, John Hatzistergos. Meanwhile, Jehan's family is grieving her death and looking for an explanation.
Sudden death, particularly of a young person, has its own demands. Family and friends are not prepared. Life and liveliness, promise and youth are the context. Death is the disruption, the destruction of a dream. The initial reaction is shock, then unbelief, denial and anger. The family does not want to, cannot, believe that life, this life, should end, now, here and suddenly. This is a normal and healthy reaction.
The gradual adjustment to this loss begins with the funeral preparations, where the thinking and shock can be put on hold. Practical considerations can absorb energy and create an immediate focus. There will be time for the investigations and the recriminations. Now there is only time for honouring and remembering and farewelling, the rest can wait.
Only, it cannot wait. Private grief like that experienced by Jehan Nassif's family becomes fuel for the imagination of the general public. The outpouring of feeling is charged with indignation. How could this happen? The questioning intrudes. The inquiry cannot wait.
This politicisation of grief is not uncommon. Some years ago, a young woman died at the Big Day Out. Elements of the inquest continued for some years afterwards, including analysis of the band and its responsibility. Currently, any death associated with possible failures of the health system is fair game. Personal grief becomes public property. More than this, it can become political capital.
There is a public face to grief, and funerals are an important expression of this. The structured and ritualised expressions are the beginnings of mourning, that time of supported and acknowledged sadness that enables people to come to grips with loss. It is both a permissive and freeing time, where there can be the beginning of acceptance and a re-ordering that enable people to recover from tragedy or death. We need this public side to our grief; many cultures have structured and detailed customs related to mourning. In our secular western society we tend to muddle through, with some traditional religious rituals and some evolving attitudes to death that serve us well