The Grief Balloon

My friend is a widow who has 3 small children and I often write about how much I learn from them…yesterday yet again they showed me a wonderful way of coping with grief.

When I went around the eldest boy was blowing up balloons, after blowing up about 6 in a row he then painstakingly tied ribbon to them….he then gathered them up and asked us to go into the garden. He smiled as he let each one fly away in the wind.

I asked him what the balloons were for and he said “His mum had given him a pack of balloons so that when he felt sad, when he missed his Dad so much, when he wanted help to cope…then he could blow his worries into the balloon. He could then send the worries away and his Dad would deal with them for him…you see his Dad was still there for his son.”

Wow…I never fail to be stunned by the innocence and wonder of children