"Lewis" wrote in message
...
In message
Don Phillipson wrote:
"David Hill" wrote in message
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A cousin of mine lost her daughter to cancer a short while ago.
She raised the following question.
A man who loses his wife is a widower, a woman who loses her husband is
a
widow, a child who loses a parent is an orphan. Why is there no word in
the English language for a parent who loses a child?

Perhaps because before 1900 this was so common: most
parents lost at least one child to illness, i.e. bereavement was
normal and required no special word.

Yes, the word for a parent who'd lost a child was "parent".

In researching the family tree a couple of decade ago I came across one
ancestor who had 3 wives, all three died in childbrith, and in total
they had 21 children. *TWO* of those children lived to adulthood.
Granted, those numbers are a bit extreme.

Another ancestor whose name I can't recall named each of his 4 sons
after himself (ie John Smith III),

George Foreman named all six of his sons after himself.
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

"Slipped the surly bonds of Earth...to touch the face of God."