Real Talk
Jennifer Garner’s Advice Comforts Those Who Have Lost Their Parents
After losing her dad on a Saturday afternoon, celebrity mom of three Jennifer Garner offers comfort to those who lost their parents or loved ones, too.
As we become parents, it becomes inevitable that the days are counting down to when ours leave this world. Their mission with us is done—they’ve raised good kids who have turned into wonderful parents. And now, they’re passing on the torch.
But nothing prepares us for the day we must let go of them. There’s that silencing grief—one that celebrity mom Jennifer Garner echoed when she lost her dad last Saturday.
“While there is no tragedy in the death of an 85-year-old man who lived a healthy, wonderful life, I know grief is unavoidable, waiting around unexpected corners,” she writes on her Instagram.
Grief and gratitude in death
Accompanying her news that he passed away “peacefully,” she posted a montage of family photos and even an ad in which they starred together, while thanking him for his “quiet demeanor and gentle strength.”
We’re [Jennifer Garner and her family] grateful for his work ethic, leadership, and faith,” she adds. “For how he teased with a mischievous smile, and for the way he invented the role of all in, ever patient girl dad.”
Jennifer also adds a bit of humor (something she picked up from him, perhaps!)—which we know is also a good way to ease the grief from death—when she reveals their last moments together. “We were with him, singing Amazing Grace as he left us (did we carry him across or scare him away— valid question.),” she quips.
What can we do when we lose them?
Once we lose our parents, there’s that void that we so desperately want to fill. We fear that we will forget them. And it’s okay to feel like this. After all, they are the people who made us who we are. If anything, we are living proof that our parents existed and loved.
While there is a lot to say and share, it’s also okay to take it slow—something that Jennifer Garner does to ease the reality of things.
“There is so much to say about my dad—my sisters and I will never be done talking about how wonderful he was so bear with us. But for today I share these memories with my appreciation for the kind and brilliant man, father, and grandfather he was, as well as the loving legacy he left behind,” she writes.
As a mother of three, Jennifer Garner has two teenagers—18-year-old Violet and 15-year-old Seraphina—and a tween, 12-year-old Samuel, whom she co-parents with Ben Affleck.
More about grief and losing parents?
Mom-To-Be Iza Calzado Pens a Heartfelt Letter To Her Father
Sunshine Dizon Mourns Her Dad: “I Will Always Be A Papa’s Girl.”
Erik Santos Pens The Truth About Losing One’s Parents
