Are we orphaned when our parents die?
I was flipping channels the other day and I came across an episode of the old Golden Girls television show. In this episode, one of the characters, Blanche, had to deal with the passing of her father. At the end of the episode, as she was walking away from his burial site at the cemetery, she said, "I am nobody's little girl anymore." I was reminded of what it is like when your last parent dies. It sort of makes you feel like an orphan. But, curiously, my first reaction to Blanche's comment, was to disagree with her. We do not cease being our parents' child, or "little girl," just because they have died. I think it is because so much of who we are comes from our parents, due not simply to genetics, but because of all of the other ways we have developed under them. We continue to carry a part of them with us in our mannerisms, the way we think and process the things of life, and so much more. I have noticed over the years that vocal in