For the Washington Post Magazine, talking to people who lost a close family member or friend in the past year, from a 97-year-old opera singer to a 7-month-old infant, from a 65-year-old man who died in the hospital surrounded by friends and family to an 18-year-old shot on a lonely street. 

Truth Thomas (best friend of Michael Johnson): "You think about what your life means. What impact you’re going to make here. What’s important and what is not important. I think I’ve come to a peace about that — that it’s enough. That I don’t have to do anything special. You know? That I’m okay, that I’m valuable. Just because I’m alive. Mike mattered because he was a loving person. Even in death he was a heroic person."

Images by Greg Kahn/GRAIN for the Washington Post magazine