Last night I went to visit with my good friend whose grandson died on Monday, and her immediately family (that part of it which still lives in the home) seems to be managing well. They reported that the media were unexpectedly understanding and let the family have their space. As would be expected, the mother is distraught and having a difficult time coping.
It was quoted last night that 90% of couples who lose a child end up getting a divorce, a statistic which seemed suspiciously high, so I went looking this morning for more information and found this article, which states it's closer to 16%. Much better, but it seems the couple is still struggling, and not really grieving together, but apart.
To make matters worse, they are pretty much spurning all forms of religious comfort. There are so many Christian principles that could be brought to bear here, to help them work through this, a few being: forgiveness of others and oneself, unconditional love, and endurance through trials. Taking the much-longer perspective would also provide them comfort, if they could just believe that there is hope that they can be with their baby again in the afterlife.
Time will tell how things will go with them, and between the child custody hearing and the likelihood of criminal charges coming forth, it's going to be a rocky road.
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2 comments:
Roy, are they letting the ward help at all?
They're not in our ward, and their own ward doesn't even have her records. They've asked the church to stay away and pretty much want to do all this on their own. They're planning to cremate the body, and will probably pay through the nose for a funeral since they won't let the church help. Very sad, I think.
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