Supporting Families Navigating Sibling Loss
Sibling grief is deep, lifelong, and often overlooked. Red Bird Ministries supports families by caring for both the siblings who are grieving and the parents who are guiding them.
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.
Sibling Support: Caring for Children, Teens, and Their Families After the Loss of a Sibling
Jessica Wilfore, MS‑Ed, CCLS
Certified Child Life Specialists
Whether your child needs a safe place to express their grief or you need guidance on how to support them, you’ll find pathways here:These one-on-one 45 minute phone calls are offered free of charge exclusively on the Red Bird Community App to provide personalized support for parents navigating grief with surviving children. Valued at $80 per session, these offerings are provided at no cost—ensuring families can access expert care without financial strain.
1:1 Parent Consultations
Broken Bonds Parent’s Guide: Supporting Siblings Through Loss offers developmentally grounded, faith‑rooted guidance to help you understand sibling grief and support your living children with clarity, gentleness, and hope.
Resource Library for Parents
Free monthly drop‑in sessions are offered exclusively on the Red Bird Community App through our Soaring Together program. Siblings of loss, ages 4 and up, engage in healing through expressive arts and bibliotherapy rooted in the Catholic faith. Valued at $115 per session, these offerings are provided at no cost to families, ensuring therapeutic support remains accessible to all.
Therapeutic Grief Activities
Soaring Together is a Catholic grief support program for children & teens. Through expressive arts, peer connection, and Scripture‑based activities helps siblings of loss explore their grief, honor their brother or sister, and discover hope in God’s promise of eternal life.
Sibling Support
Upcoming Events
Intentional Structure
Intentional Structure
Collaborative Energy
Collaborative Energy
Expert Facilitation
Expert Facilitation
Register now for our next virtual therapeutic art session or support groups for siblings of loss, led by our child-life specialist, Jessica Wilfore. These free sessions are available exclusively through the Red Bird App.
Saturday, March 21st 10:00 - 10:45 am CT
Upcoming Dates
Schedule a free call in the app!
Jessica Wilfore, MS-Ed, CCLS, 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.
According to the National Alliance for Grieving Children, approximately 6 million children in the United States will experience the death of a sibling before they are 18 years old.
The path of a grieving sibling is often not well understood and not well-researched. Grieving siblings often face a sense of isolation and feel that no one knows what they are going through, especially if the deceased sibling is the one to whom they would turn when things are hard in their family. Parents and other adults may make assumptions about their grief based on their age that may or may not be accurate. The parents to whom a child would traditionally lean on for support are also grieving an intense loss and may not be as emotionally available as the grieving sibling might need.
In your darkest moments, may you find solace in the love of God and the support of your Catholic community. Remember that you are not alone in this journey, and with faith, love, and perseverance, you and your family can find healing and hope amidst the pain of loss.
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.
Broken Bonds
A Resource for Parents Supporting Living Children Through the Loss of a Sibling
It is important to understand the depth of the bond that can exist between siblings. The death of a sibling is a broken circle. It represents the loss of a lifelong friend, or the potential for one. A sibling is an advocate that understands and shares your history and your childhood like no one else. He or she shares 50% of your genetic makeup and represents a unique relationship among all others. You share strong emotional ties, your home, the same last name, secrets, playtime, memories, fights, and friendship. The death of a sibling is a broken bond that you will carry forever.
Siblings play a crucial role in each other’s identity development. Their death can have a profound effect on how the surviving sibling feels about themselves, who they are, who they are going to become, and how they live in the world. Many people feel they lose a part of themselves when a sibling dies.
For older siblings, some of the earlier connection may be gone and there can be regrets that you weren’t closer. Maybe there was much left unsaid. Whether siblings were still close or not, there is a sentimentality that emerges with loss that brings them back to childhood. They aren’t just thinking about the recent death but all the way back to one’s earliest experiences with that sibling and grieving the life and connections they had with that sibling.
It is true that nothing will ever be the same again.
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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
We have curated helpful handouts….
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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.