A wise and moving look at the most profoundly life-changing passage of alllosing our parents.. Losing our parents when we ourselves are adults is the natural order of things, a rite of passage into true adulthood. But whether or not we have expected the death of our parents after a prolonged illness, were close to or alienated from them, this passage is inevitably harder than we thought it would be.A much needed and knowing discussion of this adult phenomenon, The Orphaned Adult validates the wide array of disorienting emotions that can accompany the death of our parents by sharing both the authors heart-felt experience of loss and the moving stories of countless adults who have shared their losses with him. From the recognition of our own mortality and sudden child-like sorrow to a sometimes-subtle change in identity or shift of roles in the surviving family, The Orphaned Adult guides readers through the storm of change this passage brings and anchors them with its compassionate and reassuring wisdom.