As the parents of the victims of Lucy Letby delivered their statements in court on Monday I was struck by their ability to articulate the uniquely painful grief of a parent who has outlived their child.
Grief is unavoidable in life, maybe starting with a distant relative, the death of a family pet. I don’t really remember a life without the sense of someone missing: my much-loved grandfather died suddenly when I was five leaving a family searching for ways to make sense of the space he left behind. I distinctly remember trying to make sense of the death of a childhood friend in my teens.
