Back to the Beginning

I’ve been playing around with the presentation of my blog, but I’m now returning to the original so that my friends on the Macs can read the posts. Hope this works better for everyone.

I usually keep the posts on this blog to G-Town, seldom mixing in much that’s personal and only when it relates to the topic of the post as it relates to school. But today our border collie, Reggie, was hit by a car and he didn’t survive. He was the greatest dog, relentless with playing catch, good natured, and beautiful. I obviously didn’t do a good enough job of taking care of him. Our cairn terrier is going to be so lonely.

The worst part is telling my kids. We talked to our son and are waiting for our daughter to get home from work to tell her.

It makes me think about the times I’ve delivered bad news to students, along with whatever family member has come in to tell the student. It occurs to me that I have no idea what the “right” way is to do this, especially now that it’s my own two kids who I hate to see hurting more than anything. Factor in my own sadness and it just really stinks.

I understand that helping a child with the grief of losing a pet isn’t anything like the grief over losing a loved one, but how do you handle it in any case? Is there anything good that I can read that offers advice?

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3 Comments
  1. Well, I guess I can REALLY realate to this blog. My dog died on saturday . 🙁 It was hard because hes been my dog for almost 14 years .. and I also suffer the lost of a loved one.. Getting the news sucks, and the way you are told stays with you forever. I was called down to the office and seen my Grandpa standing there when he told me, everyone I get called down to the office, I think something bad is going to be told to me. There really is no “right” way to do anything…I agree with what Mrs. Furman said.. the best thing to do is have someone always there, and ha my person happens to be Mrs. Furman. 🙂 Thank you Mrs. Furman!!

  2. The best thing to read is the child. Every one of them is different. A pet, a relative, a friend, or a stranger — it’s not who the person was to the child, it’s how the death affects him or her.

    I’m sorry about Reggie – he was beautiful. And he was very lucky to have lived what life he was allowed, with a great family.

  3. When my mother passed away, I was in middle school. The person that I appreciated the most at school was our school nurse. She opened her office to me, but wasn’t pushy about it. She called me to her office and told me that if I ever needed to talk, or needed a place to go, that her door was open to me. I took her up on this offer a lot the year my mom died.

    As I walked through the school, I know that there were the teachers who were looking at me with that “poor thing” look on their faces. Their pity was annoying. What I wanted most was to feel normal, and the teachers who continued to have high expectations of me, the ones that treated me normally, who didn’t cut me a lot of slack, they were the ones that were a help to me. While the ones that constantly took pity upon me, only made me feel like there should be something wrong.

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