Chapter 2: When someone in your family dies

Losing a grandparent

My grandfather was more important to me than anyone.

After my mother died, Nan was the one who raised me. She was always the role model I could depend on.

In a world where parents can be overcome with the stresses of life and not fully available to their children, grandparents play an immense role. Not burdened with full-time work, grandparents may have more time to spend with children; this allows for deeper relationships to evolve. For some children, their grandparent's home may have been the only safe and stable place their lives.

Grandparents also often represent a connection with the past, and their death makes us grieve all that we have lost from childhood; we lose a part of our innocence when our grandmother or grandfather dies. Because a grandparent is so often a source of wisdom and deep affection, their death seldom goes unnoticed and the ensuing grief can be tremendous.