Understanding Twin Loss

Today, I simply want to share from the book am reading at present, 'The Lone Twin: Understanding Twin Bereavement and Loss by Joan Woodward. It has helped explain part of why I have felt the way I feel and what I sometimes feel is some people's lack of understanding of the difference of this loss. I hope it will provide a better understanding of what lone twins can face after the loss of the other.

The book goes on to suggest in pages 19-20, that:

"When this Attachment is unwillingly broken it alters the surviving twin's sense of self to such a degree that it deeply affects the way they perceive themselves and so, inevitably, how they feel about relating to others. The most obvious feature of this loss,…….. was a deep, disturbing sense of loneliness. I believe that it is difficult for singletons fully to comprehend this, because they have never had this notion of twinship as providing half of the perception of themselves."

It goes on to explain:

"If a spouse dies, the sense of loss in the partner can be devastating, but the person does have a memory of themselves before they were married and some of them may marry again. If a child dies, this can be agony for the parent that is beyond description, but some of them may at least be able to continue in their parenting role with other children, or even have another child. For twins, they have never known what it was not to be a twin, so that in some sense the twin loss is not comparable with other losses."