UNDERSTANDING GRIEF

Other Useful Links

Mourner’s Bill of Rights

Grief is and is not…

Sign’s of Complicated Grief

Ideas for Coping with Grief

Self-Care, When Grief Bubbles Up

RECOMMENDED READING

Join our virtual support

LIGHT A VIRTUAL CANDLE

work with a GRIEF COACH

Learn About Our Virtual Support Groups

Losing a parent can be a life-changing experience. Although a parental death is expected in our lifetime, milestones create a void that no other person can fill.

Regardless of whether a parent dies unexpectedly or after a long decline, someone significant to your life is no longer there. But, irrespective of the nature or quality of the relationship we may have had with our parents, their death can still have profound effects on us. And our feelings of dependence or independence from them can alter depending on where we are in our lives.

The death loss of a mother or father is one of the most common types, with 5% of the United States losing a mother or father in any given year. Even though the grief following the death of a parent may be acknowledged initially, because of this “commonality,” some may wrongly assume that we should be able to overcome this particular loss more quickly.

As mentioned in the main Understanding Grief section, your grief will be individual and unique. How and for how long you process grief will be different than for anyone else, and you need to allow yourself to grieve and cope with the death of your parent in your way.

Unique issues related to the loss of a parent

You’ve known your parent (or parents) longer than anyone else in your life. Even if you had a challenging relationship or lived separately from them for part of your life, your parent still influenced you — for good or for bad. If you come from a traditional family, your parent cared for you as you grew up. Your mother or father shared your joys, sorrows, failures, and accomplishments over the years. Even when you are an independent adult, your parent still thinks of you as their child, which is part of your identity.

Losing a parent when you are an adult can create confusing emotions. Even though you are independent, you may feel abandoned regardless of age. If you were a primary caregiver for an aging or infirm parent, the feeling of grief could be heightened since you have lost two roles: you were someone’s child but had also been acting as their parent. You may also be required to take on a new role or assume more responsibilities in your family. This combination of loss, a shift in roles, and mixed emotions can be challenging to process. But allowing yourself to be aware of and reflect on your feelings is critical. Trying to tamp them down or tell yourself to “move on” won’t help you move toward healing.

How the death of a parent can change our priorities

A parent’s death can exaggerate other emotional issues in your life. It often brings up feelings about your mortality or can cause you to question the value of other relationships in your life. At the very least, it may underscore the reality of how short life is and how quickly time can pass. You may need to make changes in your life, reach set-aside goals, or identify new ones. Give yourself time to heal, and then reassess those ideas — the death of a parent, as painful as it may be, can also provide you with the impetus to live your own life more fully.

Other changes may include becoming closer to your siblings or a surviving parent. You may emerge from the experience with more maturity and self-reliance. If you are the eldest child, you may take on a new role as the assumed leader of your family. One after-effect of the loss of a parent is the potential for positive change in the aftermath of grief.

Ongoing triggers for grief

Long-term challenges to manage during bereavement are “grief triggers.” Many things can trigger a return to intense grief — ordinary things like a birthday, a holiday, or the anniversary of your parent’s death. Or more subtle experiences like seeing clothing once worn by them, catching a scent of perfume, or smelling a particular food cooking. A common trigger can also be the death of another relative, friend, or pet…even “secondhand” grief. Someone you might not know well dies, yet this may trigger your grief again. All of this is normal, expected, and something you should allow yourself to feel; do not judge yourself for reacting or not reacting to any of these triggers.

Developmental issues can also trigger grief, especially for children or adolescents — when a girl has to start high school without her mom or when a boy turns sixteen and realizes he doesn’t have his dad to teach him how to drive. Or, when planning a wedding, there is no father to walk down the aisle or mother to dance with.

Know that grief triggers may affect you and are inevitable and expected. If you’re sharing a holiday or lifecycle event with other relatives, talk to them ahead of time about their expectations and agree on strategies to honor the person you all loved — and how to support each other compassionately.

Other topics that may be helpful to you during your time of grief include the Mourner’s Bill of Rights, the recommended readings to the upper right of this page, and related links.

Grief is often a life-long journey. Know that additional support is there if you feel you might need to express yourself with others who understand.

FINDING ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Join a community