RELATIONAL HEALTH FOR WIDOWS
For widowed parents, one of the most painful grief experiences is knowing that our children are grieving too. In the book Running on Empty: Overcome Your Childhood Emotional Neglect by Dr. Jonice Webb, PhD, one of the parenting styles listed is The Bereaved Parent. As I read this section of the book, I remember feeling a knot in my gut as I realized my children were not only hurting from the loss of their father, but they were hurting from the loss of their mother as they had known her up to the ages of 8, 12, and 16, when their dad passed away.
I was irrevocably changed without a choice in the matter. They went from having a healthy, happy, two-parent home to looking to their bereft mother for direction while she was trying to find her own path again. I had no idea what to do. So, for a while I did nothing but work, cry, and put one foot in front of the other. Instead of being the strong one, with all the answers and comfort for them, we took turns holding …
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