*It’s important to remember that these steps don’t go strictly in the mentioned direction, especially steps from 3 to 6. It may also happen that you come back to the previous step in your grieving process – be gentle with yourself and have patience. We know it’s not easy, but that’s why we are here – to try to help you make this process as easier as it can be, although we know how hard it is and what a burden it brings.
The first stage for bereaved parents mostly includes shock and disbelief that something such tragically actually happened.
After shock and disbelief, usually comes the denial stage where you feel like the situation that happened isn't real or cannot be real - it's just too much to accept and handle.
As a parent who has lost a child, you now realize how cruel reality was to you and feel a lot of rage and anger - you'll find yourself blaming everyone and everything and trying to find something that was guilty for your tragedy.
You'll start to wish to make things right again. You'll search for various reasons even when there are none. You may start thinking about destiny, or some higher meaning, or even start asking yourself if things could have been different.
This is when the guilt comes in. After you've started asking yourself if the loss could be prevented, you'll feel guilty for the tragedy and start blaming yourself. This is especially true for the mothers of bereaved parents.
When the bundle of all those mixed emotions has ended, that's when the depression part strikes. This is probably the longest part of every grieving process, and for complicated grief, it can even last for years if not decades.
The last step of the grieving process is acceptance and hope, and that is exactly what our mission is now - to bring you here to this last step.
