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What Not To Say: A Practical Guide to Supporting Bereaved Parents
Navigating the unimaginable loss of a child is an experience no parent should have to endure. More often than not, parents are expected to shoulder this burden alone as those around them are desperately trying to work out what to do and say when faced with unimaginable news.
This heartfelt first book by entertainer, and bereaved mother, Kiki Deville, sheds light on the profound loneliness and overwhelming responsibilities that come with such a loss. As parents, our primary duty is to protect our children, but what happens when the unthinkable occurs, and your child is diagnosed with a life-limiting illness or is born with severe complications? How will the world look after this?
From the initial shock and survival mode to the heart-wrenching decisions about end-of-life care, this book guides readers through the emotional and practical challenges parents face and how they can help. It emphasises the importance of support from loved ones, highlighting the crucial role of friends and family in the grieving process. It focuses on the power of presence, compassion, and acknowledgment. It’s a call for empathy, urging readers to be there for bereaved parents in presence and in action and to honour the existence of their child, recognising the indelible mark their loss leaves on their lives.
Rather than placing blame, Kiki guides readers through honest, and sometimes amusing, stories of how the people surrounding her when her son Dexter died, taught her as much about what to do, as what not to do. Through this experience, she outlines the more practial approaches that loved ones can take in being there throughout a completely life changing situation.
This heartfelt first book by entertainer, and bereaved mother, Kiki Deville, sheds light on the profound loneliness and overwhelming responsibilities that come with such a loss. As parents, our primary duty is to protect our children, but what happens when the unthinkable occurs, and your child is diagnosed with a life-limiting illness or is born with severe complications? How will the world look after this?
From the initial shock and survival mode to the heart-wrenching decisions about end-of-life care, this book guides readers through the emotional and practical challenges parents face and how they can help. It emphasises the importance of support from loved ones, highlighting the crucial role of friends and family in the grieving process. It focuses on the power of presence, compassion, and acknowledgment. It’s a call for empathy, urging readers to be there for bereaved parents in presence and in action and to honour the existence of their child, recognising the indelible mark their loss leaves on their lives.
Rather than placing blame, Kiki guides readers through honest, and sometimes amusing, stories of how the people surrounding her when her son Dexter died, taught her as much about what to do, as what not to do. Through this experience, she outlines the more practial approaches that loved ones can take in being there throughout a completely life changing situation.
180 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 31, 2024
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 23, 2024
An amazingly emotional, heartbreaking, and thoughtful book. We all know someone who has suffered child loss, and it's always difficult to know what to say; this book helps look at how to support the bereaved.
Whether it be miscarriage, still birth, cot death or any other form of child loss.... take the time to inform yourself.
The only reason I can't give it 5 stars ✨️ is because I'm in there.
Whether it be miscarriage, still birth, cot death or any other form of child loss.... take the time to inform yourself.
The only reason I can't give it 5 stars ✨️ is because I'm in there.
Displaying 1 of 1 review