Are We Losing Our Children?

A client I met with this week was bemoaning the fact that she had “lost’ three children in the past three weeks. Two were the children of acquaintances: The first one was a five-year-old boy who drowned after wandering into the pond behind his parents’ home. The second was a twenty year old woman addicted to drugs who died of an overdose.

The third young man, however, was the friend of my client’s twenty-one year old stepson. He had introduced him to her just the night before. They went off to “party” on Saturday night – which involved drinking themselves into a stupor topped off with prescription drugs such as Percocet, a powerful prescription pain killer. They stayed over all night. His friends say he fell asleep – they heard him “snoring,” and left him alone all night. When they awoke in the morning, the friends realized he wasn’t waking up and called 911 to transport him to the hospital. He was pronounced dead on arrival.

My client was outraged. She lost her beloved 28 year old son who was a drug addict who tried unsuccessfully many times to get sober. When he experienced anaphylactic shock, his friend rushed him to the local hospital where he succumbed after waiting for hours in the emergency room. One year later, she grieves her son and says: “I am sick of this. Too many kids are dying.”

Accidents among children and teenagers cause too many deaths. Parents are left behind to try to make sense of senseless incidents. They are challenged to live in the world without their children. Life will never be the same. They will never be the same.

I welcome you to share your stories about how your loss changed you.