The hurt of suddenly losing your dad, the realization that your child has just lost their grandfather, and the support of an online community of dads coalesce here to showcase the power of friendship and kindness possible in a digital world.

Dads Help One Of Their Own After Suddenly Losing His Father

"I'm 31 and I have a 26 month old. On Oct 2nd, I unexpectedly lost my father to a heart attack. He was my best friend,…

Posted by Life of Dad on Monday, October 23, 2017

Brent Whetstone: My daughter was 21 months old when my dad died of cancer. He without a doubt was the grandparent that loved her the most…the other 3 grandparents love her to the moon but my dad was absolutely smitten. It hurt me a ton to know how many things he was not going to be there for. But what gets me through still today nearly 3 years later is that we try to think of what my dad would have wanted in a specific situation and try to give a little bit of that to her, and tell her ‘your grandpa would have loved doing this’ or ‘playing this game with you’. We have a picture of him and her and my mom up in her bedroom, and now that she is four she kind of gets the concept of grandpa in heaven.

Love your son, hold him close and be the dad your dad was to you.

Jimmy Phillips: Lost my old man 3 years and 9 months ago… I’m 29 my sons are 9,3. The hardest part was honestly my youngest son never meeting my father because he died a month and a half after my son was born. I was in the Army and we had planned on coming back home in the middle of march. He died feb 28th 2014, my oldest son did get to spend a pretty good amount of time with him though. It’s hard but as time passes it will cross your mind you will cry and be a little depressed but then it will pass. Keep your head up buddy, little man needs you, just make sure you tell him about how great of a man your father was.

Zack Beaulieu: Don’t try to distance yourself from your pain and you won’t feel as distant from your son.

As men we are taught not to show pain. It’s ok to be sad around your son. It’s ok to cry in front of him.

If he seems to pick up on it tell him you miss his Papa (or whatever you would have had him call him). Tell him stories even if he doesn’t understand the words. Do things the three of you would have done together and tell him Papa would have loved this. Keep him alive in your heart and your son will see the man he made you into.

When it’s all to much just sit quietly and snuggle the little guy and tell him you are sad cause you miss Papa and need a snuggle.

Strong men still feel, they just don’t let it stop them from living when it weighs heavy and slows them down.

Scott Dunn: Perspective man, I have my parents so I am speaking ignorantly on that part but consider this, would your dad want you to be distanced from him when he loved you so much? I doubt that. Love them more, not less. Honor your father by doing that.

Philip Schultz: When you remember a loved one through another family member then they truly never die. Do not avoid your son because of it. Instead embrace it because the time he spent with him will always remind you of him.

My grandma was the matriarch of the family and held each and every one of us grandkids and great grandkids until her passing about 3 years ago. I look at him and I see her, my heart is full. You’ll get there too.

Kevin Glenn Amburgey: I’m sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine the hurt, but my advice would be to think of the relationship you had with your father and try to create that for your son. What better way to remember him then by emulating that love with your son?

Flickr photos by Donnie Ray Jones.