Death of a Child

When your child dies you suffer life’s most devastating loss. What happens to you is worse than anything you can imagine. When your child dies, a part of you dies with them, and you spiral down into hell on earth. Nothing can prepare you for the pain you feel, and you lose your will to live. The sad part is that you keep waking up every morning to face another day without your child. How do you deal with such devastating pain and grief without losing your mind? How do you go on? What is the meaning of life now? Even though you may have surviving children, a spouse, relatives, friends, and your career, everything is changed now. You will never see life the same again.

My child, Dawn, died at the age of 35 on March 28, 2007 after giving birth to my third grandchild. I couldn’t function for two years after that. I lost my career as a real estate agent, I lost both houses that I owned and most of my possessions. I tried to put my life back together, but found that there are very few resources available for bereaved parents.

Doctors, psychologists, and everyone else wants to put bereaved parents in the same category as others who have lost loved ones. We are not in the same category, because the death of a child is the one loss that is unnatural. You can expect to outlive a spouse, a sibling, or a parent, but outliving your child just shouldn’t happen. When it does, the world seems backward and everything is strange. Eating, driving a car, laughing, and other familiar things seem strange now. It’s like you are living on another planet and have to learn about things all over again. You have to adjust to a new world without your child.

As I stated earlier, when I finally got to a point where I was tired of grieving and ready to put my life back together, I found very few resources  for bereaved parents. It seems like it’s just an issue that no one wants to deal with. In today’s world when children (adult children included) are dying at an alarming rate, something has to be done for the parents left behind to grieve. I found out that every year in the U.S. alone 50,000 children under the age of 30 die leaving behind 100,000 grieving parents. Since no one else wants to address this issue, I decided to do it myself. I created a website called www.grief2joy.com that will help bereaved parents to put their lives back together and discover what their life should be without their child.

The purpose of www.grief2joy.com is to help parents who have suffered the loss of a child. Although the main focus is on parents dealing with the death of a child, this web site can be used by anyone who has had a devastating loss of any kind. Maybe you have lost a good friend, your spouse, a sibling, your job, your business, your home, or perhaps you have gone through a divorce.www.grief2joy.com can help you rebuild your life regardless of the type of loss.

There’s no need to feel depressed, hopeless, and like your life is over.  It could be just beginning with www.grief2joy.com. We have some wonderful plans for bereaved parents. Please visit the web site and tell us what you think. We value your opinion and will respond if you have questions or concerns. Did you know that July is Bereaved Parents Awareness Month? During July, you can become a member of www.grief2joy.com for free. Visit the web site and discover how to turn your grief to joy.

Jacqui