Unless it is terribly sudden I think we begin to mourn long before a person passes.  Several years ago my Aunt died. She had been ill for a long time. She never had children. To my sister, brother and I she was a second mom.  To my children she was another grandparent.  We loved her with all of our hearts.  Alzheimer’s crept in like a thief in the night stealing her mind and erasing her memories. I think that’s when the mourning began.  As the woman we all loved faded away we mourned each loss. Each step was a death of its own.  She’s been gone a few years now but I still miss the woman she was before the disease took hold.  I miss her stories. I miss her.  I think of her often.