Grief is a powerful and sometimes destructive force.
It can creep up on you when least expected and turn you inside out.
Amy Chiles is still feeling grief over the brutal murder of her sister Vicky Telfer 11 years ago, and one can understand the feelings behind the broadside she fired at former Whanganui MP Chester Borrows this week.
Borrows has been appointed to lead the Government's advisory group on reform of the justice sector and has spoken strongly on the need for an approach based on rehabilitation and reconciliation.
Chiles' grief has seen her join the Sensible Sentencing Trust whose hardline agenda of longer prison sentences was always going to be at odds with Borrows' stance.