Pauli
01-23-2009, 05:27 PM
This section of our site is designed to provide information and resources for grandparents who are experiencing the pain and grief from the death of their grandchild(ren).
Even though the word 'stages' is the most common way used to describe the grief process, it seems to give the impression that the issues of grief are handled in an orderly fashion with a definite and identifiable beginning and end for each one.
Nothing is further from the truth. All 'stages' can be experienced in the course of just a short time. And even though you have worked through a stage, it can resurface again and again as the result of a comment by others, a situation you find yourself in, or any number of other circumstances.
When a grandchild dies, the grandparent often mourns the death on many levels. The grandparent probably loved the child dearly and may have been very close to him or her. The death has created a hole in the grandparent's life that cannot be filled by anyone else. Grandparents who were not close to the child who died, perhaps because they lived far away, may instead mourn the loss of a relationship they never had.
Grieving grandparents are also faced with witnessing their child-the parent of the child who died-mourn the death. A parent's love for a child is perhaps the strongest of all human bonds. For the parents of the child who died, the pain of grief may seem intolerable. For the grandparents, watching their own child suffer so and feeling powerless to take away the hurt can feel almost as intolerable.
Even though the word 'stages' is the most common way used to describe the grief process, it seems to give the impression that the issues of grief are handled in an orderly fashion with a definite and identifiable beginning and end for each one.
Nothing is further from the truth. All 'stages' can be experienced in the course of just a short time. And even though you have worked through a stage, it can resurface again and again as the result of a comment by others, a situation you find yourself in, or any number of other circumstances.
When a grandchild dies, the grandparent often mourns the death on many levels. The grandparent probably loved the child dearly and may have been very close to him or her. The death has created a hole in the grandparent's life that cannot be filled by anyone else. Grandparents who were not close to the child who died, perhaps because they lived far away, may instead mourn the loss of a relationship they never had.
Grieving grandparents are also faced with witnessing their child-the parent of the child who died-mourn the death. A parent's love for a child is perhaps the strongest of all human bonds. For the parents of the child who died, the pain of grief may seem intolerable. For the grandparents, watching their own child suffer so and feeling powerless to take away the hurt can feel almost as intolerable.