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Date: 11/8/2023
WILBRAHAM — A painting depicts a young girl, split down the middle. On one side she is smiling on a bright sunny day. On the other, she is crying with storm clouds gathering behind her. This is one of the paintings featured in a local exhibit of art by children who have experienced the loss of a parent or other family member.
“Reflections: A Grief Awareness Exhibit” will be hosted by Rick’s Place, a Wilbraham-based organization that gives grieving children a support community. The nonprofit serves people between the ages of 5 and 18, as well as their caregivers, who are often grieving themselves. Born out of loss resulting from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Rick’s Place uses a peer-based model in which kids can connect with others who have been through similar experiences and use art and play to express themselves.
November is Children’s Grief Awareness Month. Betsy Flores, program manager at Rick’s Place, said the exhibit is the first event of its kind at Rick’s Place, but every November the organization performs outreach through social media and events to “get the word out about how families can help children experiencing grief.”
According to Flores, 1 in 14 children will lose a parent or sibling by the time they graduate high school, and more than 5,000 children in Hampden County have lost someone significant in their lives.
Flores said adults are often hesitant to talk to children about death out of a desire to protect them, but including a child can help reassure them that they are part of the family unit. She also said there is a misunderstanding that children are “resilient” or that grief does not impact them, but she said that is not true. “Grief is a universal thing,” she said, but whereas adults tend to experience grief as an all-encompassing emotion, children experience grief in “puddles.”
“Kids can jump in and out of those grief puddles, which can be confusing for adults,” Flores said, adding that a child may cry one moment and then ask to go play with a friend the next. Children also express their grief differently. She said they may become clingier, experience physical effects such as stomachaches, begin having difficulty with friendships or become afraid of losing another adult in their life.
There are many “ripples” that come from losing a caregiver, Flores said. These can include the child needing to move to another state to live with grandparents, change schools, go into foster care or find that their former stay-at-home parent must now work, leaving them with even less parent interaction. All of these can create stress in the child’s life beyond the initial loss of a loved one.
There are about 30 works of art in the upcoming exhibition, ranging in mediums from canvas to three dimensional and poetry. The art was created by the children and teens at Rick’s Place, along with some pieces by grieving parents and students from the organization’s school grief outreach program. The art “gives us a glimpse into their world,” Flores said. “We want the wider community to become more grief aware,” particularly schools and teachers, she said.
“Reflections: A Grief Awareness Exhibit” opens with a viewing on Nov. 15, from 6-7 p.m. at Rick’s Place, 85 Post Office Park #8521. In December, the exhibit will be featured at the Agawam Public Library. Flores explained that Rick’s Place is expanding services to Agawam and the library is a temporary location for people “west of the river.”