" Although it seems shocking to say so, grief is a funny thing. On the one hand, you're numb, yet on the other, something inside is trying desperately to claw its way back to normal: to pull a funny face, to leap out like a jack-in-the-box, to say "Smile, damn you, smile! "

― Alan Bradley , The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Flavia de Luce, #6)