ABSTRACT
When a child is dying or after the child has died, what one could call a vast chasm forms between the parents and other people. The chasm seems to come partly from the devastating feelings that engulf parents and that are the essence of grief. Many bereaved parents said that the first encounters with familiar people and the first returning to familiar social settings were challenging because of discomfort about the social and emotional chasm. For many bereaved parents, the start of bridging the chasm with someone is that the person acknowledges the death. Some parents, like Karl, seemed not to be sure why the marital chasm had developed. In some parent narratives the chasm is not only between the bereaved parent and others but also between the parent and the whole world. Narratives about the chasm between parents and the world indicate how significant the grief process is in relationships with others.
