A Grief Unobserved - a review by the Child Bereavement Charity

Helping parents and carers with early childhood bereavement.

The Review

"This book charts the journey of a woman, through her childhood, into adolescence and finally adulthood after being bereaved by the death of her mother when very young.  Her early life is described as “a childhood of silence”, surrounded by adults who never talked about her mother’s death or offered any explanation as to what happened.

The book describes the resultant emotional scars which this girl carried with her into adult life and the therapeutic process she embarked on to try to deal with them.

It illustrates well the importance of adults being honest with young children when someone dies and the resultant damage to a child’s ability to make some sense of what has happened if an explanation is not given.

A Grief Unobserved would be a helpful read for anyone who works with bereaved adults. It offers some insight into how childhood grief that is ignored can result in an adulthood blighted by the anguish and despair of an unresolved bereavement."

Child Bereavement Charity

Maggie Kindred is the author of 'A Grief Unobserved'.