On Saturday morning, June 15th, my grandmother passed away at the age of 94. I’ve been really struggling with this loss for several reasons, but the loss isn’t supposed to be easy. It’s a part of life that we all will someday face, and it’s unavoidable.
While this is a tragically, heartbreaking time for our family, it also presents an opportunity to discuss how best to handle situations like this. I want to pose an important question to my fellow Autism and/or Special Needs parents out there.
How do you help your Autistic or Special Needs child navigate significant loss?
No one is given an instruction manual when they first become a parent. Being a parent is an awesome responsibility, and when things like Autism are added to the mix, it becomes a formidable challenge as well.
An instruction manual would be a great reference, but since they don’t exist, we are forced to get by doing the best we can in the moment.
One of the things that no parent is prepared for is helping their child navigate a significant loss. What qualifies as a significant loss is obviously subjective, but regardless of what the loss is, how are we supposed to help our Autistic or Special Needs kids get through it?
My wife and I are still very much learning as we go. We make mistakes, some of which are doozies, and all we can do is learn while continuing to move forward.
When it comes to significant loss, it’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is.
We’ve lost three grandparents in the last nine months, and that’s been very hard on everyone. My grandmother passed away yesterday (June 15, 2019), and figuring out how to help the kids through this has been challenging.
