Child Loss: Supporting A Sister In Grief

Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heal them.  ~ Leo Tolstoy

A reader writes: My 6 year old niece died suddenly a month ago. She was a completely healthy, strong little girl, until all of a sudden she wasn't. She had been sick for a few days with a low grade fever and a headache. Her parents thought it was just the bug going around. One morning she woke up still complaining of her headache, but asking her parents if she could still go to her cheer competition the upcoming weekend. She was so excited about it. She fell back to sleep. When her father went to wake her an hour or so later, she started seizing. He rushed her to the hospital, where she continued seizing until at one point she stopped breathing and was intubated. She never woke up from that point. Once many tests had been run we were told that she was brain dead and she died from bacterial meningitis.

Voices of Experience: Why Self-Pity May Be Unjustified--And Unhelpful

Pure misery is a luxury one never learns to enjoy. ~ Rita Dove

Mark Henricks is a freelance journalist and musician and father of three children, including Brady Nathaniel Henricks, who died October 2, 2016 of suicide at age 16. Since losing his youngest child and only son, Mark has studied the grief research literature, searching for evidence-based bereavement coping strategies. In his effort to share with others what he has learned, he writes about these and related topics on his blog Grieve Well. The following post originally appeared there and is reprinted here with his permission.

Starting A Support Group: Suggested Resources

[Reviewed and updated December 13, 2025]

To know the road ahead, ask those who are coming back. ~ Chinese Proverb

A reader writes: Do you have any ideas/resources for starting a parent support group? I live in a very small town. We have recently had several of our young people pass away, including my own son who was killed in an auto accident on Mother’s Day of this year. I have no idea how to go about starting something like this nor how to manage it. The closest mental health resources we have are an hour’s drive away. Any suggestions would be welcome.

Child Loss: Supporting A Sibling In Grief

Find an updated version of this post here:

Child Loss: Supporting A Sister in Grief

A reader writes: My 6 year old niece died suddenly a month ago . . . I'm looking for guidance on how to support my sister. She has been completely devastated by this, understandably.