FAMILIES AND EASTER

It’s school holidays and a time where routines change, different things happen at different times of the day and the kids you see at school may be different to the ones around home on holidays.

On days like these, there are many people out there alone. Today on Facebook, a parent with a child with Special needs wrote “how lonely and isolated life has become”. A person’s response was “most of us are isolated from family every day”.

Not only parents of kids with special needs but I believe it includes those people who live alone either through choice or loss of a partner. There are also those couples who have longed to have children but were unable. There are families who are living with people with mental health issues day in, day out. Adults with disabilities can be in a shared housing situation but still feel alone.

I have one son who was my 5th pregnancy, meaning I have experienced a number of losses and have had to accept the situation that there won’t be any more opportunities for him to have a sibling, someone to share a room with, share a holiday with, ask advice from an older brother/sister. Our extended family live interstate and some have passed on, so we have small celebrations and the day doesn’t always become any more extra-ordinary.
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I guess if there is anything people want you to know when they are feeling lonely, overwhelmed, exhausted, resentful, sad, grieving – is for others (be it family or friend) to remember them and show them that by sending a message, picking up the phone and call, invite them over for a celebration or a cup of tea, or drop in unexpectedly just to surprise them, makes them feel connected.
We all want to make those connections.