This advice is most appropriate for parents with children in...
Preschool and Younger
Elementary School

Age of your child at time of loss:
4

What type of loss did your child experience?
Loss of a loved one

Please briefly describe the loss and the emotions your child experienced.
We lost our dad/grampy to cancer this past summer. I tried to prepare my son beforehand by reading books about death, losing a loved one, Heaven, etc. Afterward, my son would say that his grampy died, but the impact of that didn't really seem to register until a few weeks later; he needed help with a computer game that only he and Grampy knew how to fix, and he became quite upset that Grampy wasn't here to help him. Since that time, he has mentioned missing Grampy, etc.

How did you help your child deal with his or her emotions? How did you help your child regain a sense of normalcy?
My son came up with this idea on his own. I was planning to take some flowers to my dad's burial site, and I suggested that my son could draw a picture to take to Grampy. He reminded me that Grampy is in Heaven, and how could he give a picture to him? After some serious thought, he had the idea of tying his picture to a helium balloon so that it could float up to Heaven! We tried it, and it worked beautifully! My son was so excited to watch his picture being carried up to his Grampy in Heaven, and I think it really helped him deal with his grief by feeling that he still had a way to communicate with him.