Writer Kathryn Schulz says her father’s death at 74, surrounded by people he loved, was “not a tragedy.” But it was still cataclysmic. “Popular wisdom will tell you that it comes in stages,” she writes about grief, “denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance — and that may be true. But the Paleozoic Era also came in stages … and it lasted 290 million years.” In the midst of despair, Schulz also reveled in the joy of new love, having met her future wife the year before. Forum talks with the New Yorker staff writer about the confluence of major events in her life, the experience of deeply feeling opposite emotions at the same time and her memoir, “Lost & Found.”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices