I'm currently going through a divorce and though I haven't lost a spouse to death, I have lost several well-loved family members and friends. As far as I can tell the big difference is it's easier to focus on the positives about a person when they die, but with divorce it's easier to focus on the negatives to sort of cope with why the divorce was necessary.

They're both sort of inspiring events in a way, but with death it's more like 'what have I learned from this person?' With divorce it feels more, 'what went wrong and how can I do better in the future?'