Amirah Shah

The Truck Family Amirah Shah

Avoiding grief and bereavement in children can cause life-long emotional problems. This story positions grief and loss as normal processes in life. The Truck Family aims to bridge the gap between knowledge of grief and its strong emotions through storytelling. Children typically understand the concept of irreversibility and universality from ages 5 to 7. A child of this age can grasp the concept of death, and be affected by it. So, it is crucial to pair this experience with some tools to cope, as well as what to expect from it in the long run. Although the Truck Family has a happy ending, it is realistic in the sense that the emotions are expressed and shared, and that somewhere in the future, the grief does pass. The story suggests a shared creative avenue to express grief. The parental figures of the story attempt to be emotionally available for the child to re-instill that sense of safety by helping the child deal with distress, make sense of the loss, provide comfort and security, developing a deeper connection by sharing the grief, and to create positive memories from the loss. The story also teaches reorganization, whereby the pain fades and is later replaced by joy, as well as how new relationships form as life goes on.