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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Lizzie Cernik

How we met: ‘It felt strange to like someone so soon after losing my son’

Anil and Clare
‘It’s important to find a sense of happiness again after tragedy’ … Anil and Clare. Photograph: Provided by the couple

In January 2014, Anil was left devastated when his eldest son, Wesley, died in a motorbike accident. “I went into shock; it was all a blur,” he says. “People were kind and tried to help, but I was in a massive pit of grief that I couldn’t get out of.” That summer, he joined a group for bereaved parents. “It was really helpful. It felt like the only place you could be yourself and didn’t have to put on a brave face.”

At the group, he met Clare, who had also lost her son, Matthew, in a motorbike accident. “The group became a lifeline for me,” she says. “At the first meeting I went to, the group leaders told me about Anil, because he had lost his son in such similar circumstances. We met at the next meeting.”

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