A death in the family...some help please

[Bombero1956]

Today I received a phone call at work, it was my son telling me that his second cousin Mike was dead. I spoke to Mike just yesterday afternoon, now he's gone. Mike lived with my brother upstairs and had been at the local St Patrick's Day parade earlier in the day. Later in the day his 2 boys ages 5 and 3 came over to visit their Dad. At about 8 PM he was nodding off on the living room couch, at 11 PM my son stopped by to hang out but he was already asleep. This morning my brother saw him on the floor and thinking him asleep didn't disturb him and left for work. This afternoon at about 2:30 my niece and my sister in law came home from school and work and saw him on the floor. My niece went to wake him and saw blood coming out of his mouth and nose and screamed for her mother, my sister in law shook him but he was stone cold and rigor had set in. This means that the boys spent the day with their dead father for most of the day. My question is will there be any lasting effect on the boys because of the circumstances of the having spent the day with him. An autopsy is being done tomorrow and services next week because of holy week observances.

[Lars39]

1. Am I understanding this correctly...

the boys you are concerned about are 5 and 3?

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Oh, man *hugs* I don't know how this will be for the kids. They are

pretty little though. My guys 5 and 7, seem to be handling losing their Amma all right, but a grandparent isn't the same nor were they with her when it happened. So I really can't guess here.

*hugs and prayers*

[Ready4Change]

3. This happened to my neighbors.

It was rough on their family, but their (only) daughter seems to have come though it ok. She was in her teens, though. Not sure if it's harder or easier on younger kids?

[Swede]

4. This is awful news.

I hope your family and friends are with you.

[Bombero1956]

5. the boys

Michael and Evan are 5 and 3 respectively. Evan hasn't shown any ill affects but Michael is still crying. The father was 29 years old and the weirdest coincidence was that their Mom was killed by a drunk driver when the father and his brother were 3 and 5.

[mike_c]

6. oh man, I'm very sorry for your loss....

I'm sure the boys will be fine-- they'll probably take their cue from the adults around them. Best wishes for your family.