A child in our school lost a parent suddenly. Has anyone dealt with this and have any idea of a thoughtful "gift" of sympathy or rememberence that a class can give to the child/family? I think we are looking for something with meaning as finances are not an issue for the family. Thanks -

I know this is a tragic and terrible thing to have happen.

I've heard this happens more than you realize in a school of any size.

Here's something to consider. Will you have a way to know if this happens to another parent too? How about family member of someone on staff?

You may end up doing something for one family, but not another.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything, but you have a little more to consider.

We have faced this too often in our school. It seemed that a gift of some sort would be too trivializing so we've kept it to just a card to the family from the PTO. On one occassion a parent asked us to print a note of thanks in our newletter to the school for their support which of course we did.

It is a very difficult time and I would say unless someone very close to the family can give you a very concrete idea of what would benefit, letting them handle this privately is probably best.
d

This happened at our pre-school a few years ago. The mother passed suddenly and the father was left with 3 small children. We put up sign-up sheets for cooking meals a couple times a week and delivering them; helping with the house cleaning; transportation and shopping.

The sign-ups began within a week after all the services and continued for a couple of months. We had collectively agreed that there are always friends and family around to help right after the tragedy - in the first week or two - but then what? So, that is what we put together, just a little bit of time from each one of us. He was so appreciative of it all! It was a big help to him to see how it all flowed on a day-to-day basis. He was able to integrate himself into all of these other everyday tasks (shopping, cooking, etc.) little by little along with raising 3 boys and working a full time job.

I don't know how large your school is, maybe you could try the same with the parents of the child's class?

Ona's got a good approach. We had a family that lost a child and we too started the meal thing. We eased off and then started reqeusting the donation of cards to eateries so they could use them as they needed them.

d

We had a child who lost a parent so we gave a gift of a nice locket to the child that could be used to hold a picture of the loved one.

PresidentJim