Samantha Humphrey’s aunt helping young son cope with tragedy
As a parent, discussing the death of a loved one might be the most difficult conversation you’ll ever have with your child — especially if that loved one died under mysterious or tragic circumstances.
Kimmy Wall is the aunt of Samantha Humphrey, the 14-year-old girl whose body was pulled from the Mohawk River last week. Her 8-year-old son Hendrix kept hearing everyone in the family talking about how his cousin Samantha was “lost.”
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He didn’t quite understand what it meant. So, he walked into his mother’s bedroom at 2 a.m. a few days after Christmas to find out.
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Wall says she sensed that Hendrix had a lot on his mind leading up to that night. She spoke about a map her son received as a Christmas gift. He was told people use maps when they’re lost. So Hendrix wondered why his cousin couldn’t find her way home.
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Wall says the discussion was emotional.
“He couldn’t understand if she ran away, if she was lost, why she can’t find her way back home,” she said, “And he just simply wanted to know the truth.”
“I believe that he came to me at that time because it was keeping him up. He couldn’t stop thinking about it,” she said. “And I guess in a way he was scared, and he wanted to know what was really going on.”
Wall says she wanted to share her experience with other parents so that they might better be prepared if the time comes for them to tackle some very difficult questions.