For parents bereaved of an only child or all their children

One of a series of leaflets published by The Compassionate Friends The particular pain of being bereaved of all of our children “When my son died a year ago, I was heartbroken. I survived by investing my love and energies in my daughter. Now that my daughter has also died, I don’t know where to turn. My grief is all-encompassing.” We childless parents discover early on that some of our feelings, and some of the issues we face, can be different and more intense than those confronting bereaved parents with surviving children. Some of us suffer a double grief – both the loss of our child and, if we have no grandchildren, the loss of our future. Here are issues that parents may face in these circumstances: • We may find that caring for ourselves is challenging for a while because the meaning of our life seems to have disappeared. For parents bereaved of an only child or all their children This leaflet is for those who have suffered the immense tragedy of being bereaved of their only child or all of their children. Sometimes we are referred to as “childless” or “parents with no surviving children”. This leaflet looks specifically at the impact of having no surviving children. For a more general understanding of living with grief as a bereaved parent, see The Compassionate Friends (TCF) leaflet: Living with grief .