Children and Grieving: Bindi Irwin talks about missing her famous father

As a father, and especially as one who has raised children whose biological father died when they were young, I was deeply moved the People Magazine’s interview with Bindi Irwin, daughter of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin who died eight years ago during a freak encounter with a sting bindi-irwin-300ray.  It’s the cover story of the August 4th edition of People, and I encourage all of you to read the entire article. I want to focus on what it says about children and grieving, a topic Bindi comes back to time and again during the interview.

“I Miss Him Every Day” is the title of the article. The most powerful quote about children and gireving is thsi one:

Adults came up to me and said ‘time heals all wounds.’ That is the biggest lie you will ever hear. It doesn’t. That part of you is gone forever.Time softens things, so now when I think back about Dad and the amazing memories we had together, I’m happy. But that kind of sadness never goes away It’s like losing a piece of your heart that you never get back.”

Later, with respect to her own career, she goes on to say:

“You can take the path that leads you down the aisle of sadness, or you can say “I’m never going to let this person’s memory die. I’m going to make steve-familysure everything they worked for continues.”

She concludes the interview with an answer to the question of what she would say to him if she could:

“I’d tell him that I love him more than anything in the world, and the he is my hero. Thank you and I love you and I miss you and I know I’ll see you soon. But I miss you.”

This is exactly why we created AfterTalk. We wanted to give people a place to say whatever they wanted to their deceased father’s, mothers, siblings, children or friends. AfterTalk is a place for you to express these feelings privately if you wish, or share them with carefully selected family members, friends or your therapist. AfterTalk comes out of Continuing Bonds grief therapy whicdh encourages mourners to have a lifelong connection to their deceased loved ones as opposed to other therapies which stress ‘processing’ and ‘moving on.’

I encourage all of you to read this wonderful article in the August 4th People Magazine, and, if you’ve lost someone close to you, try AfterTalk as part of your overall healing. It’s free, non-denominational, and highly secure.

Be well.

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