My sons best girlfriend passed away a few weeks ago, very unexpectedly. She was 11, he's 11. He hasn't spoken about it but keeps breaking down but blaming his tears on other things. We have the funeral next week and he wants to go, as most of the class will be there too, we've told him he doesn't need to go but he wants to.
I'm really struggling to know what to do to help him. We're acknowledging his pain, albeit pandering to the pains and aches he says are making him cry other than what we know is really going on. He's also swinging between being really angry and really moody. He has mentioned her a few times but he doesn't dwell on it, he just moves off the subject really quickly. There's not a day goes by where he isn't in tears. Even when he's together with his close friends they all cry together.
Today I spoke to a grief counsellor and she gave me some advise about what's going on in his head. I spoke to him about it and asked if he would speak to her and before I even got the sentence out he flatly refused. I asked him to talk about it to my husband and I, or a friend and again he flatly refused and told me to mind my own business.
He's genuinely a really lovely kids, he's got lots of friends and enjoys being with them, he's also really sensitive but that switch seems to have gone off and he's just being really quite horrible at times.
If he won't speak to a counsellor or even the school, I'm at a loss.
Any advise as to what we can do to help at this really sad time would be much appreciated.