Cremation Services for a Sibling

Having cremation services for a sibling in Dayton, OH can offer closure and comfort, even if can’t fix the loss. Losing a sibling is a unique experience. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a child when it happens, or you’re an adult. When a sibling dies, a piece of you dies.

The common belief is that children are more profoundly affected by the loss of a sibling than adults who lose a sibling. However, the reality is that children who lose siblings and adult who lose siblings are both profoundly affected by the loss but in different ways.

For children who lose a sibling, the loss hits close to home. They’ve lost a friend, a playmate, a rival, or a role model. Instead of the deceased sibling being there every day, there’s a gaping void that can’t be filled by other siblings, by parents, or by friends.

Children who lose siblings often feel as though a piece of them is gone, and this has a great impact on their lives, their relationships, and their views of themselves.

If a child sibling died in a tragic incident, such as drowning or a car accident, and the other siblings were also in the water or the car, the siblings who survived often deal with intense guilt. There may be guilt because, in the case of drowning, the other siblings may not have realized their deceased sibling was drowning or they may have tried to help, but couldn’t save them.

Survivor’s guilt is common when someone dies in a life-threatening event, but other people who were there did not. Interestingly, survivor’s guilt is a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is advisable to get professional help for children who are suffering from survivor’s guilt after they lose a sibling in a tragic accident.

The death of an adult sibling is just as impactful as the death of a child sibling, but the impact is much different.

As children grow up and become adults, they move out of the family home and go their separate ways and build their own lives. Some of the siblings may stay closely connected to their parents, while others don’t. Similarly, some adult siblings stay very close, while others drift apart and away from each other.

Adult sibling relationships tend to be more complicated than child sibling relationships. Part of the reason for this is because some adult siblings make choices and live lives that other adult siblings don’t agree with and don’t approve of because of the impact those choices have on them and the family as a whole.

For example, if one adult sibling starts drinking heavily, when they’re with their siblings and parents and when they’re not, their behavior can vary negatively affect the entire family. There may be accidents or arrests for driving under the influence. There may be calls from the police station or sheriff’s office for bail or to come to pick them up.

But the real damage can be the emotional upheaval that an alcoholic sibling creates. They may say things when they’re drinking that are often untrue, accusatory, and malicious. They may try to pit family members against each other. They may try to keep as much drama going in the family as they can.

But, when they get sick with liver damage, and eventually die from the effects of cirrhosis of the liver, surviving adult siblings may experience their deaths with very mixed emotions, including sadness at the loss, but they may not feel the shock or surprise that most deaths cause.

For more information about cremation services offered in Dayton, OH, our caring and knowledgeable staff at Glickler Funeral Home & Cremation Service is here to assist you. You can visit our funeral home at 1849 Salem Ave., Dayton, OH 45406, or you can call us today at (937) 278-4287.