A Child's View: The Wintertime Jumble

CATEGORY: Grief and Loss
PUBLICATION: About Grief

​Winter is a great time for sledding, snowmen, snow forts, and ice skating. However, it’s also cold outside, and the sun doesn’t stay up for very long. In fact, winter starts on the shortest day of the year. You are likely to get up for school when it’s dark outside and go to bed when it’s dark. As winter moves along and spring gets closer adults may say, “Now the days are getting longer,” but it doesn’t seem like they are.  It’s hard to notice the sun shining longer when your toes are freezing.

Grief can be like the days of winter. You may feel sad, angry, or more confused before your special person died. People may have told you that you’ll start feeling better, but when you feel unhappy, it’s difficult to believe that will ever happen. It’s not always easy to remember what happy times feel like, just as it’s not always easy to remember how hot, summer days feel when it’s 20 degrees outside.

Just like the weather, there will be good days and sad days. We’ll have days when we want to play with our friends, and we’ll have days that are hard and we want to be alone. Eventually, we’ll have more good days. In the meantime, do things on hard days that will help you feel better - ask for a hug, play with friends, look at pictures, draw or paint your own pictures, watch a favorite movie, or whatever works for you.

Here’s a list of different feelings that you may experience when a loved one dies. Find the words in the search. When you’ve found them all, you can draw a picture of your special person.

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