The loss of my wife has been harder than any break up.

Yes I do believe it is as I lost my wife nearly 5 years ago,for the last year & half was with her friend,which as recently dissolved, it is another pull on heart strings which ironically I thought had corroded up when losing my wife but if im also true I may of only committed 90%

I lost 2 to a breakup. At first it was hard but then I realized it was a real relief to not have to have so much drama in my life. We need to be very careful in that we can easily become used to pain in our life.
Years ago my aunt died (she was 89) and my uncle cried like a baby (he was 84 and spent 9 years fighting in Russia 5 of which were in a Siberian gulag). They fought constantly and most of the time she created the problems. I asked him why as she treated him so badly. He replied he knew but he missed her!!! Scary. (He died 2 years ago at 94.)

No. Death is final. You know you are never going to see them or hear their voice again.

No it is not, because the death thing is unavoidable and final.

Rejection is different from losing a loved one through death. I suppose both are equally painful, but after breaking up one of a few things could happen....1. You can move on and find someone else, 2. you can keep holding a torch and live in hope love can be rekindled or 3.live in resentment and bitterness and never get over it. Death is quite final and actual grief can be debilitating if you don’t find a way to deal with it. The finality sometimes takes a while to sink in, depending on the circumstance of the partner’s demise. A lot of people say they never get over the death of a long term partner, and I suppose a lot depends on the personality of the surviving partner and they closeness of the relationship they had. The main difference in the end must be the rejection aspect because no blame can be laid at the door of the dead partner unless they lost their life due to their own recklessness.

probably they both cause physical pain responses mental anguish and distress and a feeling of loss though breakups should be easier to recover from