Many people are lost for words when they hear me say that my child has passed away. Losing one’s own child is one of those experiences that we don’t know how to deal with – an untimely death.
I want to encourage people to dare to speak to me about my child, to mention her name and to ask me how I feel about it now. It does not have to be the only topic we talk about but it definitely shouldn’t be the one topic to avoid.
It might bring up emotions in me and it will definitely bring up emotions in you. What you are doing with them – allow and welcome or hide and suppress them – is the question. You are meeting your own grief. You might be afraid of what you think it must feel like for me. The chance is that I’ve already gone through and experienced the sadness, despair, hopelessness, anger… This however is no absolution from feeling it again and again whether you mention it or not. Sooner or later I will go through the emotions and so are you. There is no way of hiding from this experience in life.
So the question really becomes: Can you bear standing in the face of any emotions, mine or your own? Are you ready to be authentic and share your tears with me? Or are you more comfortable hiding them?
There is no right or wrong way and no judgement of mine. It’s whatever you are comfortable with in yourself.
And remember – there is no set time frame for grief.
It will NEVER be over, so don’t expect me to ‘be over it’.
I don’t want time to heal this wound.
Yes, it will (and already has) get easier.
