Earlier this month, a wonderful article entitled, Families With a Missing Piece, ran in the Wall Street Journal. Several family members and friends forwarded it to me because the premise of the article was similar in so many ways to Five More Minutes With.
As the lead to the article says, “For adults who were children when their parents died, the question is hypothetical but heartbreaking: ‘Would you give up a year of your life to have one more day with your late mother or father?'”
The article goes on to state that one in nine Americans lost a parent before the age of 20. When polled, 57% of adults who lost parents during childhood said they would give up a year of their lives; a whopping 73% said their lives would be “much better” if their parents hadn’t died young; and 66% said “they felt like they weren’t a kid anymore” after their parents’ death.
Luckily, there are support groups, such as Comfort Zone Camp, a nonprofit provider of childhood and adult bereavement camps, that can help people work through their grief.
“Touchstones”, such as writing memories of their parents in journals, listening to favorite music, and looking at old videos with surviving family members, were cathartic ways that adults who lost their parents while they were children use to cope with their loss.
More fuel for the fire that Five More Minutes With can be a useful way to process grief and help deal with the loss of a parent or other loved one.
So won’t you take the time to share your Five More Minutes With story today?
Braiden, I agree entirely with this. Two years ago, just a couple of weeks before my father’s passing, I reached out to a non-profit organization (Daddy’s Spirit Moves Me Forward)in Pennsylvania, regarding a piece of writing I had done to assist children through the grieving process of losing a parent, especially their fathers. Two weeks later, my father was gone at the age of 61. Even at 27 years of age then, I can attest nothing prepares you for the loss of a parent, especially – as was in Dad’s and my case – if the parent and child were nearly inseparable. It was tragic for me to go through at 27, just as it would be for any adult. I could not begin to imagine the unspeakable pain if a child were faced with such a loss. Thank you for sharing these stats; they are indeed very telling.
Comment by Jill Eisnaugle — July 5, 2010