The Parental Grief blog offers comfort to parents mourning a child from the perspective of Jewish belief elucidated from teachings of Torah sages and Rabbis.
How Do We Cope With Losing a Child?
Is it Possible to Lessen Our Grief?
Our departed child had a body, but the essence of our child is their soul, and their soul lives on forever. Much of our grief stems from the fact that we can no longer relate to our child. How to we relate to a pure soul? How do we even define the ‘soul’. What is the soul’s journey through life and what happens to the soul after the body dies? How do we ‘celebrate’ our child’s birthday when now the only milestone we have is a yartzeit, the yearly anniversary of passing? It is my hope this blog will provide answers to these questions and lessen the feelings of grief, despair, anger, and guilt which a parent may feel after losing a child.
The Goal of Every Grieving Parent
Finding the Joy in Life Again
Parents mourning a child are in a special category of those who lose a loved one. Although Judaism has a set time period for the ritual, physical trappings of mourning, our internal grief will never go away. There will always be that nagging feeling that something is broken in our lives and we just can’t fix it. When looking at family photos, the only person we see is the person not in the picture. As we go forward in our lives, there will always be ‘triggers’, subtle reminders that our son or daughter is no longer with us.
Sometimes I think this world is a dream. Somewhere there’s a physical world out there where my son is still alive. I just can’t wake up from this bad dream where he’s not here. The lyrics of the song, One Day by Matisyahu, have a special meaning for me:
‘Sometimes in my tears I drown
But I never let it get me down’
Sometimes, the pain of grief does get me down. But these words remain my goal for living my life without my son. We never ‘get over’ the death of a child. We will never forget our child and we’re not supposed to. I think the best a parent can hope for is to find ways to deal with the grief of losing a child. May we all find meaningful ways which will enable us to find the joy in life once again.
Dedicated To My Dear Son
This blog is in loving memory, l’ilui nishmat of Jacob Roth (Yaakov Ephraim ben Tuvia Henoch), who passed away at twenty-four years of age. May his neshamah have continuous aliyot in Shomayim.
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Latest from the Blog
The 4 Hardest Things I Had To Do After My Son Passed Away
It’s been more than a year since my son passed away. Of all the things that had to get done after his burial, I still remember the following tasks as taking the most out of me emotionally as well as physically. 1. Getting a Headstone For My Son Erecting a headstone is very important and … Continue reading The 4 Hardest Things I Had To Do After My Son Passed Away
Grief Has No Timeline
Recently I was contacted by an old acquaintance. We live on opposite ends of the country, so we don’t see each other at all. In fact, we really don’t have any contact with one another except maybe once or twice a year via phone or text. On this occasion, she caught me at a bad … Continue reading Grief Has No Timeline
The Meron Tragedy – Children Ripped Away From Their Parents
A Staggering Example of Large Scale Child Loss The tragedy at Mt. Meron in Israel, where scores of people died, is another sad reminder that Moshiach isn’t here yet. When I first heard what happened there, I was shocked and saddened. Some time later, I read online short bios and photos of those who died. … Continue reading The Meron Tragedy – Children Ripped Away From Their Parents
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