Survivors of physical maladies report that one of the central issues in their recovery from tragedy was learning to distinguish between physical loss, and emotional and spiritual loss. Victims of loss from physical injury describe an evolving attitude that seems to have a lot to do with whether or not they eventually achieve a peace of mind and self-acceptance. What loss-survivors teach us is that there can be an emotional healing when full physical recovery is not possible. Following a physical loss, there is apparently in the grief journey a series of events that allows a person the opportunity to accept his or her loss and move on. Such events are not "automatic" to each griever, but seem to depend on certain specifics (listed within full text of the article).

What about those persons deprived of a long, abundant life, and cheated or cut short of experience and time by the tragedy of a terminal condition? Those who find healing face their grief, process their pain, let go of hopes and dreams long-held, and begin to accept a new timetable for themselves. They also begin to see themselves in a new way. They understand their past from a new perspective (through the eyes of dying), their present with a different emphasis and urgency, and their limited future in an even more remarkable way.

How do those who heal and hope achieve such prized experiences in their terminal condition? Those who do, inform us again, and describe a set of characteristics that appear to be crucial to both healing and hope.

Healing and hope are clearly not issues predicated by physical recovery or escape from death. Emotional and spiritual healing are a function of the individual's attitude and outlook, along with a capacity to process one's losses and deal realistically with the future. Hope exists not just when people can get better physically, but when they can interpret their own life, their current condition, and their future with a sense of purpose and expectation.