The sadness that comes from losing a childhood home

We expect to grieve people, not places, yet losing a childhood home can stir profound nostalgia and a deep sense of loss.

- Lauren Breen

Grief can hit us in powerful and unanticipated ways. You might expect to grieve a person, a pet or even a former version of yourself — but many people are surprised by the depth of sad yearning they can feel after selling the childhood home.

In fact, it is normal to grieve a place. And this grief can be especially profound if it coincides with a parent dying or moving into a care home, leading to the sale of the family house.

Grief is the response to the loss of anything to which we have an emotional connection. A growing body of research is looking at how grief can extend to "non-person" losses such as infertility, loss of religion and, yes, the loss of a former home.

WHY WOULD SOMEONE GRIEVE A HOUSE?

The childhood home can be an important place for many of us. It literally housed our formative development, family bonds and core memories. Hopefully, the childhood home is where we learned about safety, security and love.

It was likely surrounded by our neighbourhood, and close to important places such as school, playgrounds and friends' houses. It is no wonder we grieve it when it's gone.

It's normal to grieve things we can't see and touch but are real and valued. Just as a serious diagnosis might trigger grief for an imagined future for yourself, or an identity you once cherished, loss of a childhood home can hit us harder than we think.