Neyman is one of an elite membership of sorrow in Delaware - a parent whose child has died. Some of those grieving parents have bonded in a support group called the Compassionate Friends, part of an international organization founded in 1965 in England. The Delaware chapter was started in 1985, and has about 350 people on its mailing list. Losing a child is perhaps the most acute trauma a person can endure, according to Ginger Sullivan Schneider, an Arlington, Va., psychotherapist who specializes in grief. The death of a child represents not only the loss of a loved one, but a violation of the natural order and an end to hopes and dreams.
People expect to bury their grandparents and their parents, maybe even their siblings.
But not their children. They are the ones a parent expects to carry on his or her memories, values and perhaps fulfill goals never realized. You bury your future. The need to grieve Everyone grieves differently, Sullivan Schneider said, but for many, an important part is putting the pain, anger, fear and frustration into words. Eventually it will come out.