Preserving Parental Legacies for Grieving Children
Preserving legacies can help comfort parentless children.
Posted June 3, 2026 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
The question that surviving family members and friends ask the most after the death of a parent is what can they do to better support the grieving children left behind. This is a powerful question, as there are many impactful tasks survivors can do right away to help comfort grieving children.
A great start is to gather photographs, letters, birthday cards, past gifts, ticket stubs, and other related mementos that the child’s late parent gifted to them and that hold some special meaning. They can then create a photo blanket of a group of memorable photos with the late parent and child together, or a video montage the child can watch to help comfort them of fond memories they had with their late parent. Create a memory scrapbook and put old movie or sports ticket stubs from events the child attended with their parent in there. Create backups of old videos and recordings. Laminate old recipes that were handwritten by the late parent.
The best time to do all of this is during the first month after the parent passes away. The first week is usually spent addressing the initial shock of the death and funeral planning. Memories and events are still fresh in everyone’s minds, but as time pushes forward, some memories can fade, which is why it is important to preserve them right away. Write memories down, and interview friends and family members to share a fond memory they had of the late parent. It will mean the world to the grieving children left behind to have all of this.
“One of the most difficult things to process when a parent dies is the thought that the keeper of all of our childhood memories is now gone. Creating parental legacies not only honors the deceased parent's life, but it helps to preserve so many stories for the children left behind. There is comfort in knowing that a parent won’t be forgotten and that pieces of one's childhood will always remain.” —Dawn Delaloye, Ph.D., Legacy and Connections Specialist
Another thing surviving family members and friends can do is gather favorite belongings of the late parent’s. If the late parent liked to knit or read, then collect and compile some of those items. You can place them in the child’s room to help comfort them. If there is a movie the child fondly remembers watching with their late parent, make sure they have access to a copy and let them watch it on hard days. Maybe take the blanket that was on the late parent’s bed and move it to the child’s bed for extra comfort.
As surviving family members and friends, caregivers, or anyone else in contact with a grieving child at school or at home, do all that you can to preserve a late parent’s legacy right away after a death. Doing so can help with the grieving process as children grow older, and can deeply comfort them in a loving way on especially hard days when missing their late parent feels overwhelmingly sad.
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Michelle Shreeve, MA, is a certified grief coach and the author of Parental Death: The Ultimate Teen Guide and Coping with Parental Death.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.