Dealing with Grief

I saw an article from the Chicago Tribune called: After Maya, Officer keeps memory of 4-year old alive with every ticket. The article was about a policeman who sits by an intersection (Belden and Lincoln Park West avenues) everyday, waiting to hand out tickets to people who blow through the intersection. When he does give them a ticket, it has a sticker on it that reads: "REMEMBER MAYA! Maya was killed by a driver who failed to stop at a stop sign & yield to pedestrians in a crosswalk. STOP AT STOP SIGNS! YIELD TO PEOPLE IN CROSSWALKS!"

Steve Shoup, the policeman, still tears up when he talks about the event three years later, a traumatic event that he witnessed. He said he has made it his mission to police Maya's and other intersections to enforce stop signs and yielding to pedestrian violations. Clearly, the his grief over this incident lighted within him a mission to take action and make sure that what happened to Maya does not happen again.

This article got me thinking on how people deal with grief. Understandably, after witnessing that horrific event, Mr. Shoup wants to do everything in his power to prevent it from happening again, even though he wasn't even at fault, nor did he know Maya personally. What factors then determine how we cope with grief? Is it based on our relationship to the person, our conscience, our place in life? I think it's personal for everyone, and people react differently in different situations, but some are probably more healthy than others. I think that what Mr. Shoup does is good for the community, but he shouldn't feel guilty for Maya's death.