When Grief Is Too Big for a Child to Carry Alone

Grief doesn’t wait until we’re old enough to understand it.

It can arrive through the death of someone a child loves, but also through divorce, foster care, military deployment, the loss of a pet, or another separation that suddenly changes the world they knew. And while that child is trying to understand what just happened, childhood somehow continues around them.

There is still school the next morning. Homework still comes home. Practice is still at six. Friends still want to play. A child may laugh, participate and appear perfectly fine while carrying feelings they don’t yet have the words to explain. And the adults who love them may be grieving too, wondering what to say, what not to say, and whether they are doing enough.

Where does a family go with all of that?

It is a question most of us probably don’t think about until we need the answer.

And that is exactly why Grief Garden Inc. is such an important resource to know about right here in Jacksonville.

A Place for What Children Don’t Always Know How to Say

Grief Garden supports children ages 7 to 18 and their families as they navigate grief, loss, separation, trauma and difficult life transitions.

But perhaps the easiest way to understand its purpose is this: Grief Garden gives children somewhere safe to put feelings that can be very difficult to carry alone.

The organization isn’t trying to rush children through grief or make what happened hurt less before they are ready. Instead, it creates room for them to understand what they are feeling, express it in healthy ways, connect with others and keep growing around an experience that may always remain part of their story.

Children can begin developing the language and coping skills they may not yet have through:

And perhaps just as importantly, children get to discover something that can be enormously comforting:

I’m not the only one who feels this way.

This Resource Started With Someone Who Needed It Too

For founder Rashonda Randolph, the mission is personal.

Rashonda was sixteen when grief first changed the way she understood loss. On the morning of her Sweet Sixteen, a day that was supposed to mark one of those joyful milestones you remember for years, she kissed her grandfather goodbye before leaving for school. She expected to see him again later that day. Instead, only hours later, she was picked up from school and learned that he had passed away.

Life, however, didn’t stop around her grief. Rashonda continued being a teenager—going to school, staying involved in activities, playing softball, participating in ROTC and working part-time—while quietly trying to make sense of what she was carrying. When the feelings were difficult to put into words, she turned to the colorful pages of a Lisa Frank journal, giving herself a place to write what she wasn’t always able to say.

Years later, her seven-year-old son, Dan’Ye, lost his father. This time Rashonda was the parent searching for ways to support a grieving child, and despite more than 20 years of experience working with children, she found child-centered grief resources difficult to find.

Those two experiences eventually became part of the reason Grief Garden came to life in 2025.

“I am now the resource I once needed.”

There is something deeply moving about that sentence, especially when you think about what it means for another Jacksonville family.

A mother who is searching today may find something Rashonda once struggled to find. A child who doesn’t know how to explain what is happening inside may have somewhere to go with it.

A personal need has become a community resource.

And Yes, There Is Laughter in the Garden

One of the things we especially love about Grief Garden is that grief is not allowed to become a child’s entire identity.

These are still kids.

They are funny and curious. They want to make friends. They have talents, interests, big personalities and dreams about who they might become. They can miss someone deeply and still have a wonderful afternoon. They can cry and laugh in the same day.

That isn’t forgetting.

That is living.

And one of the comments Rashonda has received from a child captures what she hopes the Garden can become:

“I can’t wait to come back to the Garden!”

There is a lot inside those few words. For a child to want to return means the Garden has become more than somewhere adults send them because they are grieving. It has become somewhere they feel comfortable, connected and understood.

Because the goal isn’t to erase what happened.

“We cannot always change what happened, but together, we can help change what happens next.”

A child may not get to choose what happened to their family. But with the right support around them, what happened does not have to determine everything that comes after it.

There can still be confidence, friendships, laughter, dreams and a future that feels exciting again.

Why We Chose Grief Garden

We chose Grief Garden because there is something beautiful about a resource created from the heart of someone who once needed it herself. Rashonda turned her own experience — and later her search for support for her son — into something another Jacksonville family can now find when they need it.

That feels worth knowing about, even if you never need it yourself.

And it feels especially worth sharing.

A Resource Worth Remembering

Grief Garden is still young, which makes community awareness particularly important. Because you may not have a grieving child in your family today. You may never need Grief Garden yourself.

But someday a friend might.

And in that moment, being able to say “There’s an organization here in Jacksonville you should know about” can matter.

That is one of the reasons Community Spotlight exists. Sometimes connecting our community isn’t about introducing two business people across a room. Sometimes it is about helping the right resource become known before someone desperately needs to search for it.

The Ask: Help the Garden Grow

Grief Garden’s biggest needs right now are sustainable funding and greater community awareness, and there are several ways to help. The organization welcomes volunteers, donors, sponsors, community and corporate partners, event participants, in-kind contributions and professional services. Grief Garden is also preparing for its upcoming Hug & Heal fundraiser.

And if someone in your world one day finds themselves trying to help a child carry something far too heavy for their age, point them toward the Garden.

Rashonda says it beautifully:

“You don’t have to have all the answers to make a difference; you simply have to be willing to show up.”

Maybe that is what a community can do too.

We cannot prevent every child from experiencing loss, and we cannot undo what has already happened. But we can make sure more families know they don’t have to navigate what comes next alone.

And right here in Jacksonville, there is a Grief Garden ready to help them grow through it.

Connect With Grief Garden

Grief Garden Inc.
Founder & Executive Director: Rashonda Randolph
700 E. Union Street, Suite 180
Jacksonville, FL 32206

Email: support@griefgarden.org
Phone: (904) 701-4287

Instagram: @grief.growth  |  Facebook: Grief Garden  |  LinkedIn: Grief Garden

About Community Spotlight

Community Spotlight is a JAX Business Calendar storytelling series created to help more people discover the nonprofits strengthening our community every day.

Our hope is simple: that someone who reads their story may become their next volunteer, donor, community partner, board member or advocate — or simply help the right person discover the right organization.

Remember the name. Share the story. Help a Jacksonville family find the Garden before they have to go looking for it.