A Personal Perspective: Even when tragedy strikes, parenting does not end. Parents and children deserve more information and clarity about grief. This is my story.
I am sharing my story of grief as a child to help parents understand what a child thinks when tragedy strikes.It was during my summer break that I remember the phone ringing in the morning. I watched my parents rush out of the house to go to the hospital. For months, they had been making these trips, but something about this day felt different. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as my siblings and I sat around and waited for my parents to come home.
Determined to get answers, I approached my older siblings, but they dodged my questions, offering no explanations. So, I waited. The phone rang again and one of my older siblings answered. Their reaction was immediate. I watched their shoulders slump and their face contort with. In that moment, I knew. Though I couldn’t put it into words, I knew. Our brother, just 21 years old, was gone. My parents were calling to tell us he had passed.
I waited for what felt like an eternity. When my parents finally arrived, my heart sank. My mother was overwhelmed with grief, and my father’s sole focus was on comforting her. I could feel my eyes pleading for an explanation, for anything to make this right, but I couldn’t bring myself to intrude on their sorrow. So, I stayed outside, unwilling to step back into the house, into a reality I wasn’t ready to accept.
There was a constant parade of people checking on me and my family, which felt overwhelming. I didn’t know how to behave, how to express my grief in front of others. I cried, I was angry, and then I was numb, just wanting to forget. The funeral made things feel final, yet the hope that somehow he would still come back was there. After the funeral, a woman from our church took me and my little sister to Stone Mountain to do something fun.
That day, grief found me. But, even then, I didn’t want to burden my family, so I kept it inside. It took years, and the support of a loving spouse, for me to realize that I needed to grieve. We all did. I wish my parents had known how much I felt responsible for them, how my desire to protect them kept me from healing. Now, as a professional, I can see what we all needed. Families deserve support, not just when life is going well, but when pain strikes.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Personal Perspective: An art collaboration releases the power of healing grief.Personal Perspective: A chance meeting between two artists transformed their grief into healing. Discover how you, too, can find solace and connection through creative expression.
Read more »
Personal Perspective: The way we see masculinity may drive our political views.Personal Perspective: The way we think about masculinity may drive our views of candidates. Here are four common versions of manhood.
Read more »
Personal Perspective: The experience of belonging when you use a wheelchair.Personal Perspective: At Disneyland, of all places, it was a pleasure to use my wheelchair. I didn’t feel different, I wasn’t a pain, and I wasn’t embarrassed.
Read more »
Personal Perspective: LLMs and the evolution of human cognition.LLMs represent a punctuated equilibrium in human evolution, a sudden leap in cognitive capability, transforming thought, creativity, and decision-making in ways once unimaginable.
Read more »
Personal Perspective: We need to help our children—by not helping them so much.College freshmen are having trouble handling disappointment. College counseling centers are being inundated with kids who cannot manage failure. We need to start earlier to help.
Read more »
Personal Perspective: My way of advising mothers who worry their child is autistic.Personal Perspective: A missed diagnosis is the worst of all, because the child will miss out on early education.
Read more »