This poor kid wears his heart on his sleeve and experiences emotions very intensely. He has a difficult time processing grief and letting things go. It’s not easy trying to figure out how to best support him because he doesn’t talk about things that bother him. All we can do is follow his lead, make sure he knows it’s okay to be sad and that he can talk to us about anything. Ongoing therapy is a necessity, as well.

When it comes to Mr. Emmett, he’s a bit more open about things and is still struggling to decide if he wants to go to the funeral services.

While he’s open to talking about the topic of my grandmother, he’s not very gifted in the art of expressing his own feelings, especially about something this profound. He tends to experience more emotional outbursts because that’s the only way he can get those trapped and confusing emotions out.

He’s had a number of outbursts today. Most notably, he had a massive meltdown because he didn’t get the last root beer flavored Italian Ice that was in the freezer. He ended up with mango because he couldn’t find root beer. Elliott picked his out after Emmett had already started eating his, and ended up pulling the last root beer flavored one out of the freezer.

Emmett very quickly unravled and there was no calming him down.

It was very clear that Emmett was emotionally overwhelmed and not able to process his feelings. Under different circumstances, this probably wouldn’t have been the cataclysmic event it ended up being. He might have been upset, but he would have been able to move to something else.

He’s incredibly overwhelmed.

Everyone is heartbroken, and each one of us deals with it differently. Some of us deal better than others, but everyone grieves in their own way, and that’s okay.

I don’t imagine a great deal of processing is going to take place before the services this week, and it’s going to take time to put things back together.