Broken Bonds
Parent’s Guide
A Resource for Parents Supporting Living Children Through the Loss of a Sibling
Sibling loss is the loss of a lifetime. As Catholic parents, you carry the unimaginable weight of losing a child while also supporting your living children through their own grief. Broken Bonds Parent’s Guide is a compassionate, faith‑rooted resource designed to help you understand sibling grief, nurture emotional healing, and accompany your children with clarity, gentleness, and hope.
This guide brings together the best of Red Bird Ministries’ parent‑education resources—grounded in developmental insight, Catholic teaching, and lived experience.
The bond between siblings runs deep, and when a child dies, that circle is painfully broken. The loss echoes through shared memories, family history, and a sibling’s developing identity.
Whether the relationship was close or complicated, surviving siblings often feel as though a part of themselves is missing. Grief pulls them back to early moments of connection, stirring questions about who they are and who they will become. Nothing will ever be exactly the same, yet healing and remembrance remain possible.
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Understanding Grief In Children
Click below for resources to help you navigate the grieving process for younger children and teens.
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The Family Impact
A parent has lost a child. A sibling has lost a sibling. Everyone has lost the family they once new.
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RBM Guiding Little Hearts Series
Curated by Red Bird Ministries, this gentle resource helps parents explain sibling loss to young children using simple, compassionate language.
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Creating an Enduring Connection
How can you help your living children maintain a connection with their sibling who has died?
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Parenting After Loss
Balancing care for yourself & your grief while supporting your grieving children. How to talk to your child about God, heaven, death, funerals, and more.
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Adult Sibling Loss
The loss of an adult sibling is the loss of a life-long friend. Click below for support specific to this loss.
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Additional Resources
Tips for grieving as a family, age-based book lists, and additional resources to help siblings of all ages process the death of a sibling and begin to grieve and heal.
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Where The Dinosaurs Roar
is a beautiful book honoring the life of River Kelly Granger, who passed away just days after his third birthday, it's a great resource for young siblings.
Jessica is a Certified Child Life Specialist, educator, and mother of loss who has worked in the hospital setting for 12 years, helping children understand medical procedures and diagnoses in a developmentally appropriate manner. She believes that the more children know, the better they can respond.
Jessica Wilfore, MS‑Ed, CCLS
Certified Child Life Specialist
Sibling Support: Caring for Children, Teens, and Their Families After the Loss of a Sibling
Understanding the Reality of Sibling Loss
Sibling loss is more common than many realize. According to the National Alliance for Grieving Children, nearly six million children in the United States will lose a sibling before age eighteen. Yet their grief is often unseen or misunderstood.
Surviving siblings may feel isolated or unsure how to express their pain—especially when the parents they rely on are grieving deeply themselves. Age, temperament, and family dynamics all shape how a child experiences this loss, and assumptions about “how they should feel” can unintentionally minimize their grief.
In the midst of this heartbreak, faith offers a steady anchor. With God’s love and the support of your Catholic community, your family can walk this path with compassion, hope, and the assurance that healing is possible. Explore the common reactions many grieving siblings experience below.
Common Reactions for Grieving Siblings
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Anger
I didn’t get enough time with you. There is something I should or should not have done for you.
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Guilt
Why did I do what I did? Why didn’t I do the thing I should have? Why do I get to be alive and they don’t?
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Sadness
I have an unrelenting ache that never goes away. I will miss you for the rest of my life. We didn’t have enough time.
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Loneliness
I lost the bond and companionship and understanding that comes from someone sharing the same family and journey with you.
“Jessica, Red Bird’s child life specialist, created such a warm and welcoming environment for my children to process their grief. Having walked through her own profound loss, she brings a deep sincerity to the way she cares for grieving siblings. My oldest participated in a five-week small group series that gave her a safe place to share and reflect, and it had a positive impact on her healing journey. My younger two attended an art session that focused on heaven, which was both gentle and thoughtful. Sometimes siblings are overlooked in the grieving process, and Red Bird is working to change that with compassion and care. I’m grateful for the heart and intention Jessica and Red Bird Ministries bring to grieving siblings.”
— Laura