Is our grief different? I haven't lost anyone before; my grandparents either died before I was born or when I was too small to notice, even my father's funeral was the first one I'd ever been to and I'm 52 so this is all totally new to me. I don't know what the grief of losing a parent is like when they have all their faculties but it seems to me now, as I am in this place, that maybe ours is a different grief due to the nature of having the role of carer. Our lives are set aside to be everything to that person, all the time, all the thoughts, all the advanced thinking, all the doing, let alone the very personal stuff like wiping bottoms and feeding that make a 'normal' bond into something different, to me. My father was totally reliant on me, there was so little about me any more, it was all about him - not that I'm complaining, it's just fact - I feel like half of me isn't there any more, I don't know what to do. Surely this closeness we have with the person we care for, if it was like my father and I, makes us a different group of people in grief.
We can't have counselling for another month but I'm wondering if there are dedicated groups for bereaved carers, or should there be?
We can't have counselling for another month but I'm wondering if there are dedicated groups for bereaved carers, or should there be?