Have you ever been really affected by the death of a stranger?

[Hightideattheseaside]

A person I follow on Instagram very sadly lost their 3 year old son a couple of days ago and it’s really affected me. I keep thinking about the pain this poor person must be in and imagining myself in their shoes. Perhaps it’s because I also have a three year old son or perhaps it’s an inevitable consequence of following people who share so much of their lives for a long time. I have never met or spoken to this person, only see a post or story from them a few times a week for a couple of years. And, yet, I keep crying throughout the day at the thought of that darling boy and his poor mother left behind. I feel real pain for this person. It’s shocked me to be honest.

Any one else felt very affected by the death of stranger? Is this to be expected when we follow people on social media or have I lost it a bit?

there was also a girl who was adducted and held by some awful gang and tortured over weeks and weeks until the killed her. What the fuck was so wrong with those evil monsters

ugh now I am going down the memory lane those little abducted girls in Belgum (i think?) who were left to starve to death in a basement when the kidnapper was in prison and his wife KNEW

stopping now. god i need a drink

Yes. A poor young girl who was murdered by a family member. I was only a teenager myself at the time but I remember having a visceral reaction to the news story. I felt inexplicably devastated for weeks. On reflection I think it was because she was a similar age to my younger sister and had quite similar looks.

Victoria Climbié. I used to work in the bordering borough with a role in safe guarding. Every training session we had would mention this case as a ‘what could go wrong’ example. And although it’s so important that lessons are learned from this tragedy, it gets me every time.

Beslan. First day of school. Remember seeing it unfold on tv, went on for days, stories of mothers having to choose to leave with baby and leave older child behind or stay with both. Awful.

I have been unusually affected by the murders of the 3 McGinley children in Dublin. I can't stop thinking of what they went through and their poor dad who found them.

Too many times : Senior Sister , NHS ICU Covid Red Zone.

Beslan
Yes. Our local library has a monument to the victims. Just awful. I feel so sad every time I see it.

Poppi Worthington- still baffled how he wasnt charged

Same seahorse it is unbelievable.

Am Facebook friends with a former colleague. Don't know her very well but we had some lovely conversations over a coffee or a beer when we worked together. In the years since I left that job, she got married, and seemed so in love. I never met her husband, but from their interaction on Facebook they seemed such a lovely couple.

About two months ago, he died suddenly of a heart attack one Friday lunchtime. He was only in his late fifties. I never met him but I couldn't stop thinking about how indescribably painful- and unfair- it was that on that Friday they got up and went off to their respective jobs, and then by bedtime on Friday night there was an empty space in the bed, and my colleague's life was changed for ever.

I do think about a body in found in woodland, 25 years ago.

My dad (never seen him upset) suddenly remembered Lesley Whittle’s murder (local to us) and could barely talk about it.

I remember about ten years or so ago, two gorgeous sisters killed in a car crash when visiting Morocco. I think they were early twenties. I couldn't stop thinking about their parents and how you cope in that situation. I still think about them a lot today. The girls looked so vivacious and as though they had the world at their fingers. Very, very sad.

Jo Cox

Elizabeth Sladen

Also the young Cambridge graduates killed by that terrorist idiot. Top of the tree young people who must have worked so hard and chosen to try to do good just slaughtered like that. Their poor parents. Get why the newsreader cried reading the juries statement about them

I remember being told about it at the local parkrun as Saskia's aunt is a volunteer there, and it was such a massive shock.

Your thoughts are so refreshing, people have been unforgivably vitriolic about this poor mum

Yes, when I was a student HCP I was on a placement and we had a very, very sick person come in, was stabilised for a bit in our area, and then had to go straight to theatre for abdominal surgery.

My mentor let me and another student follow the patient through to theatre, we got into our scrubs and observed, they opened this person up and found that everything was too far gone inside and nothing could be done.

The person was quite young and there were absolutely no contact details for anyone. The patient went to recovery, was extubated and kept comfortable until they passed away. Still think about them quite often. To be in your 40’s and have not a person in the world who could be informed that you’d died.

I don’t take my family for granted, and I try now to remember for patients that a support network isn’t a given.

Jaxons death really affected me aswell. Kaytee had the most pure love for him and he absolutely adored her. His beautiful face lit up when he looked at her. We've seen him since he was very small and every milestone Kaytee was told she wouldn't get, we got to experience with them through her profile. We got to know part of him and love him too. I have a daughter who is the same age as Jacon. Kaytee fought every second gor him to get the best services and care available, she put every ounce of her heart and soul into caring for Jaxon. It just seemed to be at a point when he seemed to be doing so well that it was such a shock. I can only empathise with Kaytee and will never understand the depths of her pain but even now I still get very upset when I think of Jaxon. I'm a Nurse and I've never had a stranger have such an impact on me before. May he rest among the angels and guide his Mum to strength, she is an amazing girl. Xx

There were two little boys (brothers) killed whilst crossing a road with their parents in Coventry. They had just been to the park. It was unbearable to think about. I think the father commit suicide eventually

Also, a brilliant and talented student killed in a freak accident outside a nightclub in a Durham. I was at the sane uni (not at the same time), so it probably had more of an impact.

And Sarah Everard of course, also at Durham University. I didn't know her, but she was there at exactly the same time as me, same college too.

And any murdered child... Unbearable.

Yes it is upsetting especially when its a young child. You can't but help putting yourself in the shoes of the family x