An ambulance came but nothing could be done. My son died next to me. For a long time, I kept looking in his room and I couldn’t believe he was gone. I was in complete shock.
Lorna's story
Lorna approached the Charity for help when her eldest son, Sean, passed away. As we guided her through her grief, she now feels passionate about supporting others who have lost someone they love.
It was a normal Sunday with exciting family plans in the diary and a normal working week ahead. Lorna was out with her younger son, shopping for his graduation outfit. What was meant to be a happy occasion turned into the worst day of Lorna’s life. As she walked through her front door in the evening, she found Sean extremely unwell in the kitchen. She called an ambulance and held his hand as tightly as she could.
Sean was only 26 years old when he died. With no prior medical conditions, he had suffered from a pulmonary embolism, a fatal blood clot which travelled from his leg to his lungs.
Lorna was devastated and found it difficult to process what had just happened. With three other children, and now her young son’s funeral to plan, she felt completely overwhelmed.
I didn’t have the ability to navigate anything at first, I felt like I was losing my mind. I had lost my son but my other children had lost their brother, and I wanted to be there for them.
That’s when Lorna decided to reach out to her very own charity… the Charity for Civil Servants. We put wellbeing at the heart of everything we do and that’s where we started with Lorna. We provided a supportive conversation with one of our wellbeing advisors where she was also signposted to other relevant, external resources. Additionally, we arranged access to the Grief Works App and the Thrive App, which provide a range of resources to help people feel calmer and stronger for tough days ahead.
I felt like the support normalised my feelings, which in turn, helped me take a break from constantly being in fight or flight mode. The therapy meant that I could sleep, manage my stress levels and reinforce a few good habits. Essentially, the Charity enabled me to look after myself and take the first steps in the grieving process.
With the Charity by her side, Lorna eventually felt ready for a phased return to work and now wants to do all she can to support other people navigating their way through grief. That’s why she wants to share her story and raise awareness of a charity that will always have her back.
I felt like something was preventing me from grieving properly and I now realise that it’s the trauma of witnessing my son die. The support from the Charity helped me recognise that and it’s given me the initial tools to move forward. They’ve helped me get through the first Christmas without Sean and be there for my other children.
Some elements of this story have been anonymised or changed to protect the person’s identity.
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