![]() ![]() ![]() The pressure at such depths makes it impossible for any manned craft to navigate the area where the plane likely lies. If this is true, there is little likelihood of the plane and its dead will ever be recovered. The latest speculation is that the plane is at the bottom of a particularly deep part of the Indian Ocean, more than 2.8 miles from the surface. More than one month later, not one fragment of the plane or its occupants has been found. The nightly news has focused regularly on the recovery efforts by crews from more than a dozen different nations. On March 8, 2014, Malaysian flight 370 disappeared without a trace. Such deaths, called “ambiguous deaths” by the psychiatric community, require unique handling and sensitivity from family and friends as well as funeral professionals called upon to oversee the final arrangements. However, without a body, the mind still wants to believe anything but the truth. They yearn for both answers and a starting point from which to confront their loss. Families and friends of those involved in these situations are experiencing this rare types of loss. Two recent news stories have included just such situations–the missing Malaysian aircraft and the big mud slide in Washington State. When tragedy strikes and people are presumed dead, but no body is recovered, it changes everything that traditionally surrounds the natural process of grief. Whatever the circumstances, the uncertainty, pain and isolation felt by the person’s family and friends is the same…and unimaginable to those who haven’t experienced it. Other times, it’s as simple and as devastating as a woman with dementia walking away from her caregiver, never to be seen again. Sometimes, this situation is the result of a monumental tragedy, like 9/11, that strikes an entire community or nation. Although the majority of these people are located, many stay missing, leaving their families to wonder for years and years if the person they love is dead or alive. Each year, more than 1.8 million American men, women and children are reported missing. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |