Addresses how our culture does not handle grief well and makes it difficult for those experiencing this life event.

Baby Boomers are in for a shock!!! We may think that we are prepared for the sadness that will accompany our parents’ death. In fact we are usually totally unprepared for this life experience. To lose the people in your life that have always been there and know you the best is a life-altering event. I was sure that I understood the pain that would accompany the eventual death of my mother. Professionally I was a nurse and involved in palliative care and bereavement counselling so I was sure that I was prepared. I was wrong!! I quickly realized that this experience could only be described as a total assault on your being. I became concerned about my friends who had not yet experienced this pain. This generation has had an enormous impact on many of our cultural and societal norms. This will be no exception!! Baby Boomers have had many advantages compared with previous generations but limited experience with suffering the consequences of events such as world wars and depression. Grief causes physical and emotional pain. Baby Boomers have come to expect instant pain relief in this fast paced society. Unfortunately Baby Boomers will be facing this chapter in their lives in a culture that does not give grief the respect or validation it deserves. Grief is an emotion that our society does not want to discuss. It has become an “off limits” subject in our culture. Finding someone to listen to you again and again and again is a key element in getting through this difficult time. This can be a friend or a counsellor – it really doesn’t matter. Talking about our feelings is key to coming to terms with our grief. We have inherited the “stiff upper lip” of our parent’s generation and have also been inundated with expressions such as “get on with life” and “closure” and “getting back to normal”. None of these expressions or attitudes helps the grief stricken. Losing a parent is a significant loss that is difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t yet experienced it. The expectation of those around us to be “back to normal” takes an incredible amount of energy. The effort can be exhausting!!! People don’t want to see others in pain. But due to that, we try to rush people through a process that follows its own timeframes and requires time our culture finds difficult to give. We will never be the same after this life experience but will eventually develop a new “normal” and learn to live in a world without our loved ones. This process takes time and patience from those that are close friends and relatives. Hopefully the sheer numbers of Baby Boomers experiencing this life event will change how our culture handles grief. It is not well understood. Without that knowledge it becomes more difficult to navigate through this inevitable and disturbing life experience. Regrettably grief follows its own timeframes. You experience waves of grief even months later when you least expect it. There are positive elements of the grief process. As you go through this process you can find your priorities are different than before and there is an appreciation of life that perhaps wasn’t there in the past. Hopefully many Baby Boomers will experience some of these positive changes in their lives and help to change the way our culture handles grief. Providing friends (and ourselves) with resources such as books to help them through this difficult time acknowledges the pain this experience brings. Jane Galbraith, BScN, R.N., is the author of “Baby Boomers Face Grief – Survival and Recovery”.