The death of a child has to be the worst emotional pain possible. I’ve never experienced parenthood, but it lifts my stomach just trying to imagine what this most horrific parental experience might feel like. And it must be exponentially worse if the child’s death was violent, pointless or preventable.
It's largely why I feel that parents outliving their children — let alone their very young children — is one of the greatest flaws of human existence. It's simply wrong; perhaps so much so that it doesn't even have a name.
A child is ‘orphaned’ when its parents die. A woman is ‘widowed’ when her husband passes away; likewise, a man is a ‘widower’. But no name for the most unnatural order of things — parents outliving their children.
For some or many of those suffering such greatest of losses, the greatest gift life offers them is that someday, likely preferably sooner rather than later, they get to die. Perhaps worsening matters for them is when suicide is actually simply NOT an option, for whatever reason (e.g. religious or loved-ones left behind to suffer the loss), meaning there’s little hope of receiving an early reprieve from their literal life sentence.
The death of a child has to be the worst emotional pain possible. I’ve never experienced parenthood, but it lifts my stomach just trying to imagine what this most horrific parental experience might feel like. And it must be exponentially worse if the child’s death was violent, pointless or preventable.
It's largely why I feel that parents outliving their children — let alone their very young children — is one of the greatest flaws of human existence. It's simply wrong; perhaps so much so that it doesn't even have a name.
A child is ‘orphaned’ when its parents die. A woman is ‘widowed’ when her husband passes away; likewise, a man is a ‘widower’. But no name for the most unnatural order of things — parents outliving their children.
For some or many of those suffering such greatest of losses, the greatest gift life offers them is that someday, likely preferably sooner rather than later, they get to die. Perhaps worsening matters for them is when suicide is actually simply NOT an option, for whatever reason (e.g. religious or loved-ones left behind to suffer the loss), meaning there’s little hope of receiving an early reprieve from their literal life sentence.
As you said, losing a child is truly the worst pain. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this difficult topic.