The story “The Management of Grief” is based on a terrorist bombing in 1985, when Air India Flight 182 was destroyed by a bomb and crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. All passengers and crew were killed.In the story, the narrator, Shaila Bhave, has lost her husband and her two sons in the plane crash. Shaila appears to be calm on the outside, but inside she is devastated by the loss of her family. She travels to Ireland with another grieving widow, Kusum, to identify their families. Shaila does not identify her husband or sons because their bodies are not recovered from the ocean. She strangely finds relief. After they visit the site of the plane crash, they fly to India and Shaila spends time with her parents. During her visit, she sees a vision of her husband and decides to move on with her life. She moves into a small apartment downtown, and she does not hear the voices of of her family until the final scene of the story.
“Then as I stood in the path looking north to Queen’s Park and west to the university, I heard the voices of my family one last time. Your time has come, they said. Go, be brave. I do not know where this voyage I have begun will end. I do not know which direction I will take. I dropped the package on a park bench and started walking.” (447)
These are the final words of the story and they speak volumes, suggesting how death can affect a person and how one can move on with their life afterwards.