Watch this when
Sesame Street: When Families Grieve Message for Families: The Memory Box
A shoebox, some photos, a favourite book. Sometimes that's how a kid keeps someone close. 📦
Who it's for
A memory box gives a young child something concrete to do with an abstract loss: choosing, holding and returning to objects that belong to a relationship that hasn't ended in their heart.
Feelings it meets
What it is
A short clip from Sesame Workshop's When Families Grieve, a programme made with military families in mind and also shown as a PBS special. Elmo's cousin Jesse, whose dad Uncle Jack has died, shows Elmo her memory box, where she keeps things that remind her of her dad.
Where to find it
YouTube, official Sesame Street channel (free). Also listed on Share My Lesson (CC BY-NC-ND); a how-to page, Memory Boxes, is on sesameworkshop.org.
Before you start
Heads up: Death of a parent, gently told.
Age: All ages
I have suffered and despaired and known death and I am glad that I am in this great world.Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds, no. 323
