Losing your parents as an adult: Finding light while holding grief alone

The grief that follows in the wake of losing both your parents is amplified when you are an only child

Grief can be very difficult at Christmas. 

So many of the stories we read and watch as a family at Christmas are about orphans — Harry Potter, The Witches, A Little Princess. Children’s authors will tell you they write about orphans because children can’t have adventures when their parents are there to save them.

The word orphan calls up tragic images — iron beds in Romanian children’s homes, huddled masses in residential institutions where knock-kneed Dickensian ruffians fought over porridge.