When I shared this post awhile back, it sparked quite a discussion among friends and an online community of bereaved parents to which I belong.
Pictures are a mixed blessing to those of us who have buried a child:
We love to see our dear one’s face beaming back at us but we also long to touch and hold the one represented by the two-dimensional image. And when others share a photo on Facebook or Instagram, we are sometimes caught off-guard as our newsfeed scrolls by–There he is! Our hearts stop for a moment.
I love to get pictures of my son through email or in notes and letters-many are ones I would otherwise never know about. So if you have photos that a bereaved parent might like to see, think about sharing them. And write a line or two about how our child is still part of your life.
We miss our children and welcome ways to connect with them through others.
“Pictures are everywhere today–much different than when I was a child and you had to go down to the local studio to get a decent family photo. Poloroids were fun and fast, but the number of shots you could take was limited to the film in the packet.
One of the challenges facing bereaved parents is what to do about photographs–both the ones that exist and the ones yet to be taken.”
Read the rest: Bereaved Parents and The Question of Photographs