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Such is my experience - not that I ever mourned the loss of a child, but that I consider myself as lost!

Since my brother died in 1982, my parents and I had formed a shaky tripod of a family; now that I'd lost my father too, it was too easy for me to glimpse a future point where I alone was the keeper of not just my own childhood memories, but of my family lore.

My parents were mourning the death of my sister. She was killed in a car accident before I was born, and I didn't know she existed until I was 13 or 14 years old. I knew I was growing up in a house where people were angry and sad.

I lost both my parents young - but I have felt their presence throughout my life.

I lost my mother when I was very young, and my father when I was in college.

I had a very turbulent and painful childhood, like many people. I left for college when I was 16 years old and up until that point I'd lived in five different family configurations. Each one ended or changed through a death or some terrible loss.

I lost my parents very early in my life. My mom died three weeks after I graduated from high school, and my dad died two years after I got married.

My mother, who died aged 82, had Alzheimer's. Losing your memory is bad enough, but everything shuts down. You can't remember how to eat or go to the toilet. It's a terrible disease and so distressing to watch it take over someone you love.

I had one relative who passed away but fortunately none others. So my sort of experience of it is quite limited, thankfully.