How to Help a Bereaved Parent - WikiHow

How to Help a Bereaved Parent (click on the title)

This is an excellent article and video from WikiHow on how to be a friend or relative to a grieving parent whose child has died, the best I've seen. Especially good are the short video and tips at the end. Three years ago, before Leif died, this would have been just "information" for me. Now I can relate to everything said and it is all so true. Save this or bookmark it in case you ever need it. I hope none of this blog's readers every experience the death of their child.
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The photo of Leif was taken at Lovers Point in Monterey, California in July 1980 when Leif was five years old.

"On the Rocks" at Lover's Point, Monterey, California

Here's another photo of Leif in a brief moment of stillness when he was climbing around on the rocks at Lover's Point in Monterey, California where his paternal grandmother lived at the time. He loved climbing on rocks, logs, anything like that, when he was a kid, like a little mountain goat, always sure of himself. I was the nervous mommy, hoping he wouldn't fall and get hurt. He never did. This was taken in July 2980 when he was five and a half years old.

Leif - Monterey, California - July 1980 - Age 5

The summer of 1980, we moved from Sachsen bei Ansbach, Germany to Japan. On the way, we visited England, family in Kansas, Peter W's mother, Ellen Garretson, in Monterey, California, and stopped to enjoy Hawaii.

Leif was to visit Monterey and his grandmother there several more times with us over the years, but this was his first time there. He had a great time walking (and running) along the trail by the sea to Lovers Point, which is where the "little devil with horns" photo was taken. He scrambled all over the rocks. Had me scared, as usual, but he was fearless.

Sometimes Leif liked posing for photos, and he tolerated it if someone was just taking candid shots of whatever he was doing, but he (like most kids) didn't relish posing for family group shots. You can see him acting really silly in the one with me, Ellen, and Peter A, who was eleven years old.

Leif & his Garretson grandparents - Monterey, California - May 1991 - Age 16

We left Colorado Springs and the Air Force Academy after Peter A's graduation and flew to California to visit Peter W's parents, Ralph and Ellen Garretson. Leif was the tallest member of our entire family, from the time he was only 13 and shot up to 6 feet 1 inch. Here he towers over his grandmother and is taller than his grandfather.

Leif didn't get to see as much of his Garretson grandparents as he did of Jerri's mother. They lived in California and Ellen only came to visit us a couple of times during Leif's childhood, once when he was born, and then when he was in about third grade. Ralph wasn't with her. However, once we moved back to the USA from Japan, we went to visit them at least once a year in California and Leif flew along with us until he was on his own.

Ralph took Leif golfing on this trip and they enjoyed each other's company. His "bequest" to Leif was a thick envelope of uncirculated foreign stamps about Mars. Ralph said that if life was discovered on Mars, they would be worth a lot of money. I don't know if that will be true, but I still have that envelope and who should it belong to now?

Ralph died in September 2001 and Ellen died in September 2002. Ralph served as an infantry sergeant in World War II, the Korean War, and had two tours in Vietnam during the Vietnam war. He met Ellen in Germany and brought her to the USA in 1952.