ABSTRACT
Picking up the Pieces speaks to the regeneration after the devastation. This regeneration occurred on the level of the individual, the family, and between parents and surviving child(ren) through parenting. Just as each individual shatter was different, so too was each individual regeneration. As we will document in the following chapters, some parents, with considerable effort, were ultimately able to rebuild their lives and reconstruct shattered assumptions of the self and the world; others were not. Some were able to return to the touchstones of their sense of self and re-establish meaning; others struggled to create anew from what was left after The Shatter. Regardless of the level of regeneration, the shards, cracks, and missing pieces were always and forever present, affecting each parent’s sense of self, family, and world view.
