In Memory of Nathan

Oct..25/75 – May 22/91

I heard it said that grief is the price we pay for loving someone. I think there is some truth in that.

On May 22, 1991, our son Nathan died at the age of 15 years old, after a two week stay in the hospital.

That is 33 years ago now.

He was 15 years old when he died, and now it has been 33 years since his death.

The Most Exclusive Club In The World

Being a bereaved parent means you are part of the most exclusive club in the world, you never want to join.

Fortunately there are support groups for bereaved parents, and sometimes grand parents come too.

I lead a grief support group in our city, for bereaved parents called The Compassionate Friends for a handful of years. They reached out to us at the time of Nathan’s death.

Aline and I went to the group in our early grief years, and found great support being around other bereaved parents who were going through the same kind of loss. There was something comforting about that.

Someone did know how I felt, and we could relate to each other with the stories of our children.

“ Who then can so softly bind the wound of another,

as he who has felt the same wound himself. “

Thomas Jefferson

We Wonder

Now many years on from his death, we wonder what our son would have become ? What he would be working at, how big a family would he have, and we’d watch our next generation grow, as we had grown a few decades earlier.

Grief never goes away entirely, it seems we weave it into our lives as another piece of life.

Grief Music

I wrote the song Between as a grief song about Nathan a year ago. I also wrote a couple other grief songs titled – Memories Roll Down My Cheeks, and Natural Order of Things.

Listen to these grief songs below.