Coping With the Death of a Child
Comfort for grieving parents
I was thinking about my child more than usual recently. Not having enough distractions keeping me busy, I thought of Jacob. Five years after his passing, the tears still flowed. That nagging question keeps coming back: How can you mend a broken heart after losing a child? Will I ever live a normal life? I... Continue Reading →
Hi son, we haven't spoken in a while. First, let's catch up on what we've been doing. We Missed You On Chanukah Jacob's football Chanukah menorah, gifted to him when he was four years old We spent Shabbat Chanukah with your brothers and their families. It was very nice, and it was like the whole... Continue Reading →
A good friend recently lost her husband and suffers from acute grief. Knowing I lost my son almost five years ago, she asked: 'How do you do it?''How do I do what?' I asked'It just comes and comes. How do you deal with it?' She was asking me how to deal with feelings of grief.... Continue Reading →
The Jewish calendar mirrors life with ups and downs. A particularly challenging period for the Jewish community is the final two weeks of the month of Tammuz and the initial week of Av. This time period is known as 'the three weeks' during which our people have experienced numerous tragedies, including the devastating loss of... Continue Reading →
Before my son Jacob passed away as a young adult, I rarely heard the term child loss. Of course, I knew such things happened, but I didn’t know anyone who suffered through the experience. Child loss meant losing a child, and that was that. After I lost my own child, I realized that child loss... Continue Reading →
First of all, I want to share the wonderful news that my husband and I are grandparents of twin boys born to Jacob’s brother Adam and his wife on the fourth night of Chanukah. In addition to the joy we feel over the birth of these little guys, it’s also bittersweet in that our son... Continue Reading →
Every few weeks I go to the cemetery and trim the grass over my child's grave. ( Why the cemetery isn’t doing this is a long story, so don’t ask ) Next to Jacob are two graves of young adults who died around the same age, one in his mid twenties, the other in his... Continue Reading →
Parents and teachers are sometimes afraid to talk to young children about death. ‘They’re too young’ or ‘They won’t understand’ are a few of the justifications to avoid speaking about this topic. The fear of talking to young children about death is unfounded, and is based on our own adult discomfort about the subject. In... Continue Reading →
Art therapy is a valuable tool that helps people cope with trauma. In particular, parents suffering from child loss find art therapy useful to express painful emotions they can’t otherwise communicate. How does creating art help parents cope with such tragedy? To fully understand the benefits of art therapy as a means of coping with... Continue Reading →
I want to address 4 feelings and thoughts about child loss that afflict me and other bereaved parents. These feelings are the most common among those who suffer from child loss. Bereaved parents have jumbled and conflicting emotions coping with the loss of a child, and these painful feelings and thoughts affect our self perception... Continue Reading →
I lost my son at the young age of 24. The sadness of child loss never goes away, and I thought the intensity would diminish over time. Instead it seems that, in some ways, coping with child loss is harder for me now than it was then. Even though my son passed away a while ago,... Continue Reading →
I've suffered child loss for a few years now, and I still vividly remember the day my son died. He passed away in the morning, and for several hours after he died, I couldn’t cry. The tears just wouldn’t come. I thought something must be wrong with me. Why can’t I cry? After that, a... Continue Reading →
Coping With the Death of a Child 