ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the metaphors of grief which refers to how parents talk about feelings. Other metaphors analyzed in this chapter include metaphors of how the child was special, metaphors of parental pain, body metaphors, feeling metaphors that measure the magnitude of parental loss and of parental feelings, and money metaphors. In many ways, control is a common theme in stories about grief. As parents used the word 'grief' and other words to describe their feelings, certain metaphors recurred. The metaphor of draining highlights how grieving is associated with a loss of energy, upbeat feelings, a sense of purpose, and life-meaning. With the child missing from the physical environment, a metaphor that encompasses both that absence and parent feelings is the metaphor of something missing. Another way of connecting narratives of the aftermath of the child's death with the child's death is to use the idea of death metaphorically.
