Watching Someone You Love Die

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.


Recently, my family found out that my grandmother is really sick. The day before Easter we got a call that she had stage 4 brain, lung, and liver cancer. Hearing this has been heartbreaking and I haven’t been myself since. I’ve never expected something like this to happen so soon, especially since I’ve never experienced a family loss before.

I feel guilty that I’m sad and she hasn’t even passed yet. Some days I’m completely okay, and the others I’m a mess and it’s hard to get out of bed. I can’t sleep and my mind is always racing with sad thoughts. I don’t want to imagine my life without her, and it pains me to think she won’t be at my graduation or wedding.


Have you ever experienced a significant loss before? Has your child? Have  you had a conversation with your child about death and grief?

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