I couldnt bear the thought of burying one of my children. I would have them cremated and kept with me. And I would talk to them as I do believe there is an energy that remains. We dont understand it...but then what is this force that keeps us functioning in our bodies? I have told my children repeatedly not to bury me but to cremate me and scatter my ashes on the sea. So they wouldnt feel obliged to visit anywhere and they could live anywhere they wanted without giving my remains any thought.
A couple years ago, a dear friend of my son's, only a month after she got her license at age 16, was killed in a car crash. A tragic, avoidable death in an unclearly marked road construction zone. I have never seen such an outpouring of grief from a community, and the inconsolable grief of my son and his friends over her death. And they saw how easily it could happen to them. It was very sobering. They tried so hard to "replace" her at her moms home...spending nights there, cleaning for her, being teenagers around her...but there was nothing they could do to assuage the loss for that mom. I never got to meet the mom. I went to the memorial they had at the high school, which was packed to the rafters with kids wearing pink shirts with her name on them. The mother actually found the courage to talk to us, and she said "people keep telling me she is in a better place now...she is NOT in a better place! She was LOVED here! CHERISHED here and she should BE here! God should NOT have taken my baby! She didnt DESERVE this!" And it was all I could do to not run hysterical from there thinking of my own children. Nothing on the planet matches that grief.
I hope to God I NEVER have to deal with that...because I wouldnt be able to.