Imagine growing up without a father. Imagine a little girl who can’t run to him for protection when things go wrong, no one to comfort her when a boy breaks her heart, or to be there for every monumental occasion in her life. Experiencing the death of a parent will leave a hole in the child’s heart that can never be filled. I lost my father at the young of five, and every moment since then has impacted me deeply. A child has to grasp the few and precious recollections that they have experienced with the parent, and never forget them, because that’s all they will ever have. Families will never be as whole, nor will they forget the anguish that has been inflicted upon them. Therefore, the sudden death of a parent has lasting effects on those …show more content…
Isolation becomes a key component in that process. Growing up the child will isolate themselves from their family. Families are a constant reminder of the grief that is inside of the child due to the loss of their parent. That heartache is the very thing that the child wants to forget. Therefore, the child will evade all costs to bring up the deceased parent. Whenever I visited my family, I would deter from the conversation whenever my father was brought up into the conversation. Simultaneously, the fear of losing another family member will always be prevalent in the child’s life. Every medical scare will impact the child even deeper, because of this fear. It takes a lot of courage and strength to overcome the grief and the fear of being vulnerable again. With time comes acceptance. Gradually opening oneself up to others will not just make the child face their emotions, but learn to accept the death of their parent. Surrounding oneself with the family that the child once distanced themselves from will make more sense of the emotions coursing through their mind. Sharing stories, looking at old photographs, and even watching old home videos will assist the child to become more comfortable with the topic of the parent and even aid the child to appreciate the time spent with
Death isn’t always the enemy. Life that is continued has the ability to change things that weren’t possible before. Premature death is a misfortune but it shows us we are not immortal. I grew up in the small town of Monroe, Louisiana and the oldest of six children. We were always together and enjoyed each others company, especially when it came to sports and competition. Our favorite sports to play were basketball and football, our parents even bought us our own basketball goal. When our parents let us have time to play outside, we would play with neighbors and friends until the street lights came on, which was a signal for our curfew. Some of the best memories I have is with my siblings. I can remember when I was fourteen, my mother finally allowed me to babysit on date night. I was so happy about babysitting because I saw it as real authority over my siblings and I could tell them what to do without a fight. I wanted to be in control, but also wanted to be the cool babysitter, so I decided to have a handstand contest. The rules were whoever can hold the longest handstand could have chocolate cookies before bed, my siblings were excited. Each one of us took turns doing a hand stand but falling quicker than we got up. Then it was my brother’s Said turn, he was the most athletic of the boys and the one I always wanted to beat in a race. He held his hand stand for twenty seconds but when he came down he his feet crashed into my mother’s marble and glass coffee table, shattering the glass. He was unharmed but the table was ruined. When my parents came home, they didn’t notice the table was missing until my younger sister blurted out we broke the table, we were grounded for weeks.
The death of a parent changes people in a profound way. In the movie Fly Away Home, Amy Alden, a thirteen years old girl loses her mother in a tragic accident that changes her and her whole life greatly. After her mother’s death, she moved from her home to her father’s home in Ontario, Canada. She is very depressed, she sleeps a lot and she doesn’t want to go to school. She also did not connect to her father because she thinks her father is strange. She felt alone and isolated from the world and she does a lot of things for herself that a mother should do to her child. She is now very independent and she lost her innocence now that her mother died. Her life begins to brighten up again when she finds the geese eggs in the wilderness near to
When death has taken someone from your life, you think of everything you said to them, your last words, memories, and the talks that happened. During this assignment, one will see the grieving process from me about a tenant that I took care of, and the impact this lady’s passing away, left me. Polan and Taylor (2015) says “Loss challenges the person’s priorities and importance of relationships.” (pg 226) When an individual loses someone that you see everyday and take care of, this effects you because, you build a relationship and get to know each other on a personal level. When my tenant was passing away it was painful. I didn’t know what to feel when I seen what was happening and knew what was taking place.
I have felt the pain of the loss of a Sister; have felt the pain of the death of my Mother, and felt the death of my Father. I know how it feels. I experienced it. It is painful, looking at those old kind folks who bore you; who took care of you; went through all kinds of sacrifices and pains just to look after you for years and years, until one day the child stood on one’s own two feet, and then … there they are, the parents, helpless and lifeless in front of you.
Children who experience a loss through an adult may grieve differently. Death in general can be difficult for children of all ages because they can be confused about the changes they see taking place around them. Parents try to protect them from the truth or from their own display of grief. Children limit understanding and are not capable of expressing feelings in this type of situation which puts them at a disadvantage. Young children may revert to earlier behaviors such as bed wetting, sleeping with lights on/scared of the dark, physical behaviors if experienced in the past etc. Coping with a children's grief puts more strain on a mourning parent or caregiver. However, angry outbursts or criticism only deepens a child's anxiety and delays recovery. Instead, talk honestly with children, in terms they can understand. Take extra time to talk with them about death and the person who has died. Help them work through their feelings and remember that they are looking to adults for suitable
During an evaluation at the age of 10 years old, I was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Camilla Sutter and Thomas Reid determined that many of the children in their case study were not simply mourning, but rather battle a sickness of their own. Many of the children in this study were diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. “PTSD is a debilitating disorder characterized by symptoms of avoidance, re-experiencing, and physiological arousal related to a particular traumatic event or experience.” This diagnosis explained why many of the children in this case study developed such negative coping mechanisms. After my father’s death, I felt that nothing made sense. I never had any experiences with my father, and with his death any chances I had of forming a relationship with him were taken from
The novel The Namesake is clearly able to reflect my life, both showing that children are unable to view their parents as a human being unless the parent is triggered by a traumatic event. This causes the child to feel empathy for the parent figure and suddenly be able to mature so that they can humanize their parents. In this way, traumatic events to the family can often be healthy and necessary for the maturity of the child. After all, if he or she is unable to see their parents at their weakest, the child may take a considerably longer time to discover their gratitude and express the love that is owed.
Family dynamics are patterns in the relationships between family members. Every family has its own dynamics and there are very different from one another because of the many aspects that influence them such as the numbers of members in the family, the personalities of the individuals, the cultural background, the economic status, values, and personal family experiences. This paper will analyze the two different relationship patterns found in the poem “Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead,” by Andrew Hudgins and in the short story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker. By interpreting those two sources through Freud’s concept of family, the family environment and the relationships between the members will be analyzed to illustrate the ways family dynamics
The incident in which death occurs can play a crucial part in how the individual overcomes it. In some cases death can leave an individual traumatized and basically mentally paralyzed for a time being after the incident. The way of overcoming death in these individuals would be to accept it. Accepting death is a positive way of coping. Accepting death consist of understanding that death is a part of life, treasuring the moments and growing from the impact that individual had. However, this may become difficult based on how the incident occurs. The story, “My Mother’s Sin” is a prime example of overcoming death. In this story death plays a critical component. However, it is not death who defines a person; it is how the person fights back after death. The mother, Despinio, in this story had a tough time overcoming death. Despinio never accepted fault in her actions. She had smothered her baby
People cope with the loss of a loved one in many ways. For some, the experience may lead to personal growth, even though it is a difficult and trying time. There is no right way of coping with death. The way a person grieves depends on the personality of that person and the relationship with the person who has died. How a person copes with grief is affected by the person's cultural and religious background, coping skills, mental history, support systems, and the person's social and financial status.
involved with Hamlet. It seems that no matter whoever gets involved with Hamlet after he finds
A major problem in our society today is the absence of fathers in the home and in the lives of their children. I believe that growing up in a two parent household gives a child the best chance to be successful. My theory is that the absence of a father greatly affects the outcome of the child’s life and limits their opportunity for success. For the sake of this argument success will be measured by education level, mental state and crime. I will explore what effects, if any, the absence of a father has on these factors of success.
Death is something that many people have a hard concept grasping. The fact that a loved
Parents go through a wave of emotions when losing a child. They are not only in disbelief and denial, but also feel angry and guilty. Some parents find themselves wanting to talk about it, while others find it easier to talk about the death of friends or other family members rather than their child’s. When a child dies this disrupts the parent’s health and well-being during the hardest phase of bereavement and for long periods over the course of their lives (Hong, Floyd & Seltzer, 2010).
According to Beckstrand, Rawle, Callister, & Mandleco (2010) “Death of a child evokes deep feelings of tragedy, devastation, and painful confusion at the injustice of a life being ended prematurely.” (p. 544) These are the raw emotions that are prevalent when a child is dying. For the child and the family, these final fleeting m...