What do you call a person who has lost a child?

If it is an only child we can use the word shidu (or shidu parents) which has been recently introduced into English from Chinese. Wikipedia explains: Shidu (失独) is a phenomenon denoting the loss of a parent's only child. The parents who have lost their only child are known as shidu fumu in China. read more

To call a person a widow/widower, or an orphan feels more definitive than to say "he/she has lost their spouse/parents". As the English language is founded on (and continues with) the absorption of multiple languages, I feel it makes sense to adopt these Arabic words if you find yourself speaking or writing about this subject. read more

What we called parents or a parent that lost a child was "bereaved parents" or " a bereaved parent", then anyone would know that is a parent that lost a child. We have a candle lighting service once a year on the downtown square of Tyler and it is for bereaved parents. In this part of the country I'd say 95% of people know what that means. read more