Repost from the New York Times, written by Catherine Saint Louis A FEW decades ago, children often didn’t attend funerals. The thinking was that they should be sheltered from the pain of losing a loved one. And as Americans started living longer, the need to even broach the subject of death was delayed because…
Psychosocial
When Crisis Becomes Chronic: What to do When Friendships Fade
Reprinted from PsychCentral by Marie Hartwell-Walker, ED.D. It’s a common experience. Something goes wrong in a family. A child is diagnosed with a chronic illness or a disability or gets into serious trouble. Just when you’d think that friends would draw in closer, many seem to drift away. “When my year-old son was finally diagnosed…
Understanding Sibling Loss
One of our biggest concerns during Hannah’s illness, especially during the last few months of her life, was how her disease and her loss of skills and interaction was affecting her older brother and sister. There were very few articles published anywhere on the internet, and the ones we found were mostly discussing sibling…
Helping Kids with a Terminally Ill Sibling
Parents who are caring for a terminally ill child are often overwhelmed with emotion, yet if they have other children at home, they must somehow find the time and energy to help the entire family to cope. Children often share special bonds with their siblings and the loss of one child is sure to impact…