Healing After the Loss of Your Parents: Finding Comfort & Purpose Through This New Life Stage as an Adult Orphan

by Elaine Mallon

Healing After the Loss of Your Finding Comfort & Purpose Through This New Life Stage as an Adult Orphan is a compassionate and empowering grief recovery guidebook that helps readers navigate through grief, cope with the profound changes that follow the death of their parents, and learn new ways to rebuild their life after loss.

Whether we think we are prepared or not, the passing of our parents ushers in a new stage in life as an “adult orphan.” With it often comes a disorienting period of intense loneliness as we confront existential changes to our identity, sense of mortality, family of origin, and life purpose. It also tends to reawaken grief over the loss of our first parent.

This “natural rite of passage” brings a complex layer of grief and adaptation. After their deaths, it’s common to feel lost and “What do I do now?” “Who am I now without them?” “Why do I feel so… untethered?”

When our sense of direction and security in the world is turned upside down, what we need is a compassionate grief sherpa to guide us through.

This heartfelt grief recovery guidebook takes the reader through the challenging journey of loss, offering insight from neuroscientists, psychologists, psychiatrists, licensed counselors, thought leaders, and wisdom teachers to help answer many common questions asked by those in mourning.

Ultimately, the real experts in coping with grief are everyday people who have walked this path before and provide advice and encouragement on how they emerged from their heartache to discover hope and healing.

This comprehensive, step-by-step guidebook is a valuable compass and resource for both the person dealing with this life-altering experience and those seeking practical ways to support a loved one at a time that forever changes them.

If you find yourself at this turning point in life, you are not alone. Let’s walk this road together.

This book provides insight
- The Adult Orphan
- Difference Between First and Second Parent’s Death
- Reawakened Grief
- Personal Transformation
- Identity
- Mortality
- New Stage in Life
- Empowered Grieving
- What Can I Expect? Emotionally, Physically, Cognitively, Socially, Spiritually
- How Grief Rewires the Brain
- Grief vs. Depression
- How Long Will This Pain Last?
- Triggers & Glimmers
- Holidays & Special Occasions
- The Afterlife, Visitation Dreams & Signs
- Coping Tools for the Mind, Body, Soul
- Bereavement Support Community Q&As
- “Healing Roundtable”: Advice, Guidance & Hope
- How to Support Someone Grieving (What to Do & Say / What Not to Do & Say)
- Forgiveness & Moving Forward
- Signs You Are Healing
- Purpose
- Meaning-Making
- The New You

"At a time many might otherwise feel powerless, we can arm ourselves with answers and a deeper understanding of how the full scope of grief impacts our mind, body, and soul. This fresh insight can help us emerge not as victims of circumstance but as empowered in our healing and on our path forward." –Elaine Mallon, Author

Elaine Mallon is the author of the acclaimed grief recovery guidebook Healing After the Loss

370 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 15, 2024

About the author

Author Elaine Mallon knows the magnitude and overwhelming heartbreak of losing parents firsthand. With deep empathy for those who might feel lost, misunderstood, or alone after the death of their mother, Elaine felt compelled to write the compassionate grief recovery guidebook she desperately needed when her own mom unexpectedly died. After her father’s passing eight years later, she followed up with a second book about navigating double parental loss and entering this new stage in life as an “adult orphan.”

Her first book, "Healing After the Loss of Your Mother: A Grief & Comfort Manual"—recognized among the Best Grief Books of All Time by BookAuthority— is a heartfelt and practical guidebook for those mourning the loss of their mother and for supporters hoping to help a loved one through grief.

Since its launch in 2018, the acclaimed self-help book has consistently been an Amazon Best Seller in several categories, including Grief & Bereavement, Mental & Spiritual Healing, Love & Loss, and Sociology of Death.

"Healing After the Loss of Your Parents: Finding Comfort & Purpose Through This New Life Stage as an Adult Orphan" is a natural follow-up to her first book. It's a topic that will one day touch all of us, yet seldom covered in grief literature.

"Healing After the Loss of Your Parents" is an insightful and empowering grief recovery guidebook that helps readers navigate through the disorienting “natural rite of passage,” cope with the profound changes that follow the death of their parents, and learn new ways to rebuild their life after loss.

Both books provide a road map through heartache… toward hope and healing.

In addition to writing, Mallon is a grief support advocate who founded two bereavement groups as companions to each book. In 2016, she established Healing After the Loss of Your Mother – Grief Support (approximately 25,000 members worldwide), and in 2024, formed Healing After the Loss of Your Parents – Grief Support. Both online groups are sacred spaces for those seeking comfort and community through their loss. They are free and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year on Facebook.

Elaine Mallon is an award-winning public relations and marketing veteran who began her professional career in entertainment publicity and later became Vice President, Media & Corporate Relations at 20th Century Fox Television.

She resides in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews

[Gina Afable · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a tenderhearted and deeply insightful resource for those struggling with the profound loss of both parents.

Through its heartfelt narratives and valuable advice, this book offers solace to the grieving, guides them to navigate the over-

whelming emotions of heartbreak, identity, and closure. The book’s wisdom lies in its capacity to recognize the depth of

sorrow while gently enlightening readers toward acceptance, healing, and finding strength in the memory of their loved

ones. It is a reflective guide for anyone facing the void left by such a profound loss.

[D. Sloane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a comforting and informative guidebook in the wake of double parental loss, like someone holding your hand, making space for your grief when you need it most. After reading, I feel better prepared for the road ahead and empowered with new insight and coping tools. Beautifully written, easy to navigate with its detailed Contents pages, and easily digestible. A much needed companion and resource for healing after such profound loss. A must read if you've lost your parents and/or a thoughtful gift for someone who has.

[Polly Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This book is a wonderful companion for your journey through grief to healing from the loss of both parents, an experience we will all face. As a medical professional who provided caregiving for both parents and experienced the slow loss of my mom to Alzheimer’s, followed by the loss of my dad six months later, I anticipated the grief that would come. But despite my knowledge, preparation, and support, it still felt like losing an extremity. With caregiving, it was their journey and I was merely along for the ride. Once they were gone, the grief journey became mine to navigate. This book explains what I am feeling and—using layman’s terms—the neuroscience behind our emotions and ‘why’ we feel so different. It offers coping mechanisms and encouraging ways to heal from losing the longest relationships of my life. Thank you for this gift, Elaine Mallon. This book will impact so many people who seek comfort.”
P. Porter

[Sophie Gist · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has helped me contextualise this immense feeling of losing both parents. It covers the new life stage amidst losses, re-grieving past deaths, brain trauma, relationship changes, specialist advice, and also advice from those who have already journeyed this path. It’s reassuring to know there’s an explanation for the crazy emotions you’re experiencing. This book is overall a much-needed light in the dark for all of us adult orphans.

[Katy Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pray I will reach this stage a long time from now

but two years ago I thought I was going to lose one parent.

since them the fear hasn't really gone away. the ajrdest part of growing up is watching your parents grow old