Understanding Grief After Loss

After Steven died, I began to read books about grieving, written by those who also had a child die. I could not get enough. I needed to feel like I was not alone. I needed to identify with somebody. I needed to know that I was not going crazy and that what I was feeling was normal -- whatever normal means when your child has died.

It helped knowing others had gone through what I was now experiencing. I learned that bereaved parents may do things that seem strange to others. That does not mean they are crazy or that they are not moving forward in their grief. They are coping the best way they can. They are trying to keep their child's memory alive.

Darcie Sims, a former grief counselor and bereaved parent, once said that as long as you are not hurting yourself or anyone else, then you are grieving exactly the way you need to do it.