In general books about resilience agree that:

Resilience is not rare, it is as common as tragedy in our personal lives.  

Fortunately for most of us tragedy is not frequent in our lives, but most people are likely, once or more in their lives, to experience: unexpected bereavement, 
the loss of immediate family members or close friends, debilitating illness or accidents,and/or sudden change in fortunes, e.g. job loss or bankruptcy.

 
Each of these experiences will be different and experienced differently, but none will be 

pleasant, and no one would choose them (although there will be people who will reflect 

that their misfortune was the best thing that happened to them: a wake up call; gave 

their lives a new focus; helped them see how precious life is; taught them to value every 

moment and not stress over the small stuff).


Most people will recover from these events.  They will not forget them, or be unchanged, but they will eventually resume living their lives unimpeded and in some cases strengthened by their experience.