Identity as a Bereaved Parent
1 / 29

A mother and nurse’s personal journey to palliative care advocate.

Writing the book- Living Well with a Serious Illness

Grief in Bereavement: “Sitting through the state of loneliness.”

Continuing to talk about your child after their death

CPN's In the Room: Continuing Bonds and Honoring Your Child's Legacy

Mom: Through all of our painful experiences we do give birth to a strength

Writing as healing, during her life and in bereavement: “It forced us to be with our Grief … And now it’s a portal to her.”

Death of the only child: We went from being parents to just not being parents.

Grief in Bereavement - Continuing bonds: over time, the bonds become less externalized and more internalized.

"I think we all work best when we don’t expect each other to change the core of who we are.”

Something broke inside of me when he died.

Our son and this experience still push us to rise and be the most actualized versions of ourselves possible.

“You do learn these incredibly profound lessons and I think that we have a responsibility to share that.”

Bereavement: This is very isolating. You don’t wake up and forget. We are holding on to what we know.

A bereaved father on the pressure parents feel to be changed to perfect.

Sanfilippo /MPS: The dreaded question. How many children do you have?

You can't ever be fully ready. (Sanfilippo)

Answering the question, "How many kids do you have?"

You don't owe anyone an explanation and you don't have to feel good every day.

Give yourself permission to go on with your life.

I feel like I need to be a better person.

I am entirely who I am today because of Ben.

I still talk to my network all the time.

It’s another sort of loss.

People wonder how they are changed by the death of their child.

One chapter is finished and another is about to begin.

"Now I have deep conversations about the burdens people carry."

After people see how we handled death, they see death differently.

He should be 8. I should be at Little League games.
Can we help you:
Related
From our Blog:
- The Endurance We Didn't Choose
- A book review of Finding Meaning, The Sixth Stage of Grief by David Kessler
- My View of the Power of Writing
- The Question: So, how many kids do you have?
- 21 Today. But not. Today.
- Words, Stories and What Courageous Parents have to Say to the Rest of Us.
- The Black Swan and the Light
- The Ghosts of Christmas Me: Present Me to Past Me
- Awareness Goggles—Not exactly Google Glass
- What's in a T-Shirt?
- I truly can't handle The Hunger Games
- Country
- Surrender