ABSTRACT
When a young child dies, the bereaved parents automatically become the focus of intense grief. There may be young siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, but no one questions the primacy of the parents' grief. And only the parents are in charge of funeral arrangements, final decisions about a burial site, memorials, time, and place of mourning. The parents are completely independent of anyone else in assuming the authority to do whatever they see fit.
