In a recently released video, Prince Harry talks about grief and tells children and youth to express their emotions. As a global ambassador for Scotty’s Little Soldiers, an organization that supports children. Who have lost parents in the military, Harry opened up about his own experience.
Harry’s mother died when he was twelve years old; thus, he speaks from experience on how best to manage grief. This video, which was filmed in May ahead of Armed Forces Day, is designed to show what support bereaved military children need across the UK.
During his speech, Harry was open about the potential misunderstandings that kids might have after losing someone they loved. However, he noted that it could be tempting for people to think they must remain unhappy for long so as to prove that they still miss them. He explained that most dead relatives would prefer living loved ones to lead happy lives.
He said “It’s so easy as a kid to think or convince yourself….you convince yourself that the person. You’ve lost wants you, or you need to be sad for as long as possible to prove to them that they are missed. But then there’s this realisation of, no they must want me to be happy.”
Prince Harry’s Afternoon out with Scotty
Previously aged 39 years old Prince Harry has complained about lack of family support following her mother’s death in 1997. According him this led him into burying feelings until he found therapy services. He emphasized on talking about loss as a way of celebrating those who have gone before us.
“This is one of the hardest things I think especially for kids is like ‘I don’t want to talk about it because it will make me sad’ but then realising once I’ve talked about it actually I’m celebrating their life’…rather than this ‘I’m just not going to talk about it and that’s how I cope,’ but actually it isn’t,” he said. “It can be for a period of time…you can’t suppress it forever. It’s not sustainable. And will eat away at you inside.”
The difficulty in discussing painful subjects was also pointed out by Harry and with own thoughts on the topic. He emphasized on the natural defense mechanisms that are at play; “No one wants to be in the position. Where they are forced to talk about the very thing they don’t want to talk about, especially. When every defense mechanism in your mind, nervous system and everything else is saying ‘do not go there’.”
Nikki Scott, who founded Scotty’s Little Soldiers, features in this video talking with Prince Harry. In 2009 she took her eldest child Kai aside and broke. The news that his father Cpl Lee Scott had been killed whilst serving in Afghanistan. She was also nursing a seven-month-old daughter called Brooke at that time.
This video was released by the charity to raise awareness about bereaved military children still struggling today. Scott formed her organization after taking her grieving son on a vacation where she observed a positive change occurred.
Prince Harry has also had a lot of respect for Scott’s work and stated that “It is amazing what you have done, it is truly inspiring. I feel so privileged to be part of Scotty’s now and really look forward to us doing all we can to get more people into this, more interest, more support raised and the message out there for those kids who desperately need help.”
Scotty’s Little Soldiers currently provides support to over 680 members and estimates that each year 2,100. Children are newly bereaved through a service person death in the British Armed Forces. The objective of this charity is to make sure these kids receive emotional aid such that they are able to endure the pain and lead fulfilled lives.
The idea behind this was that children should understand that expressing feelings is a very important aspect of their healing process. Therefore he aims at introducing grief counseling services as an important topic among everyone
