Disenfranchised Grief
Grief is disenfranchised when others avoid talking to you about your painful loss or use cliché to minimalize it. When your loss doesn’t fit into societal norms people can seem careless or even rude as sometimes this type of grief can be disparaged or belittled.
As animal lovers, we’ve all heard it - “it’s just a ___” (fill in your species). This lack of support can prolong the grieving process. Animal companionship, for many of us, goes far beyond simply providing shelter and food.
I’m obviously an animal lover, but specifically I’m a dog person. I understand their feelings and their needs. Our dogs are my closest companions. So, to have a loss reduced to being some mundane event is unbelievably painful. It forces us into a deep, dark place where we feel even more alone. Having no person that we feel that we can confide in or seek comfort from while enduring the loss of the one being that we felt the most comfortable with.
One of the goals of The Gwen Fund is to establish a community that offers support to all of us grieving. While we may be from all over the world, we share the common bond with our pets, and we are here to support each other. You do not have to grieve alone.
This is a great quick read by Crystal Ro, Buzzfeed staff. I’ve also included a few other articles on Disenfranchised Grief.
Please connect with us on social media, join our community and support us as we build more programs to support animal welfare. If you need to chat about your loss, you can DM us on Facebook and Instagram, or contact Chris@thegwenfund.org
