Grieving Parents Support Network

Find ways for healthy grieving

Topics for Grief Reflections

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Join us!

e would like to discuss YOUR preferred topics.

Let us know in a comment, what you would like us to discuss next.

All Love,

Carly & Nathalie

Comments

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Comments

  1. Marianne says

    My question for the next reflections would be how to help our living children deal with the death of their sibling? I thought that it was a good idea at the time to have my boys hold their sister and be with us, now I am questioning that decision. My 7 year old asked me the other day if all babies looked like Claire when they are born? I was so sad when he asked this and I am not sure how to help them understand all of this when I am still trying to understand it myself.

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  3. Jo-Anne says

    Something very close to my heart is the aspect of sibling grief and how to assist toddlers in specific with grieving and loss. It would be a wonderful topic to start and I believe it will provide alot of people with guidance and support. It is difficult enough losing a child but what is even harder is watching your little one’s struggle with all of these questions they cannot even begin to put into words. When my daughter Zia was born still in July last year, we used the analogy of her flying back to sky, that she was an angel now to explain her death to our four year old son. We told him that she was forever in our hearts but more importantly watching over us all the time. That he could take her with him whereever he goes and that even though he couldn’t see her, she was always with him. That seemed to work temporarily but he still struggled with the fact that she had to leave us at all, he was angry even and sad that she wasn’t coming home. It’s been a hard year and he has coped extremely well, he has taken my description of what happened quite literally and it has helped him talk about her and embrace her as his sister. So I believe this would be something useful for bereaved parents to share and participate in. Jo-Anne

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    • Nathalie Himmerlich says

      Thank you Jo-Anne. You provided a beautiful example of how you handled this with your 4 year-old. There is a section in my forthcoming book talking about sibling grief and specific to different age groups. One thing I heard that I find interesting is that children between the age of 4 and 6 understand the concept of death but lack skills/ways to grieve appropriately as do older children, teens and adults. This obviously is an age bracket that needs to be seen in context of your individual child’s development and understanding, as well as the parents’ way of dealing with it.
      This topic has been mentioned before so we will definitely talk about it soon. Thank you, Nathalie

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  5. Lee DeNigris says

    I am so looking forward to your book!! I would love to have a discussion on ANGER!! How and why it rears its ugly head, mostly to those we love the most.

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  7. Alex Bustamante says

    Hello Nathalie! I’d be interested about handling grief with siblings/children – at different ages – too. Personally my wife and I chose to be pretty open but asked ourselves how others dealt with the matter. We’re looking forward to reading your book! Alex

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    • Nathalie Himmerlich says

      Thank you Alex. Yes, good topic for discussion. There is chapter on siblings grief and how they deal with it as part of my forthcoming book. It has been asked for a few times in this post, so it will definitely be a topic very soon. Thank you for your support 🙂 Nathalie

      Reply

  8. Caitlin says

    I’ve experienced a few losses in the early 2nd trimester before getting pregnant with my daughter and know how it is to experience a miscarriage but I have a friend who had twin girls at about 28 weeks gestation. One of the twins had a condition which caused her to only live about 3 hours after birth. She lives about 12+ hours away from me so I can’t go down to visit and though I know what it’s like to lose a child, I was wondering if maybe it can be discussed how to talk to a friend who has had one living twin and one twin who has passed shortly after birth. I know a lot of people don’t think of a miscarriage and the death of a newborn as the same thing (though, I feel a loss is a loss no matter how you put it). The girls’ 1st birthday is approaching in November. Thank you! <3

    Reply

    • Nathalie Himmerlich says

      Thank you Caitlin. Have you received the 5 ***** STAR GRIEF SUPPORT GUIDE when you signed up for email updates here? There are some general suggestions on how to be a good support person. From my personal experience of raising a twinless twin and living with the loss of her identical twin sister, which is 3 years today, I can say that for me it’s meaningful if people mention both girls in conversations, especially around birthday. They both have their birthday and it means a lot to me when someone notices that.
      I totally agree with you that a loss is a loss no matter what gestation or age. What is different is everyone’s grief and how they deal with it. The best is always to ask your friend: What do you need? What would be most supportive to you? … and then use that as a guide to how best support her. All Love, Nathalie

      Reply

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