Here is a thing I wrote about twenty years ago: Your interpretation of it is the right one: No matter what..
The compassionates
As though entities, the memories are clutched close.
Like talismen,they are drug along the paths that are trudged.
Occasionally, briefly, ... sat aside...while intentions are renewed.
They are burdens, quickly scooped up if approached too closely.
Social identities lost with the death set adrift and
attachments diminish reluctantly as recognition decreases.
Grief, carried deep in the heartland, decomposes the image
and unwilling detachment occurs.....till
the unrecognizable pain is abandoned.
MORE TO COME AS I GO THROUGH OLD JOURNALS ETC.,