While those people who are close to you will know that your parent has died, there will be other people who you don’t see all the time who may not have heard.

• Sporting teammates, adults who know your family, uni mates (especially if it happened when you were on holidays) and anyone else you might bump into.

• You may have to deal with being asked how they are and then having to tell them that they have died.

• For some of you this may be really tough, especially as you know most people aren’t too comfortable talking about death.

It may help if you can have a few answers ready in your head so that you know what to say.

Of course, it is up to you what and how much you tell people who are not an important part of your life.

Answering questions

• There will be times after your parent has died where you will get asked questions about your family and your situation.

• Things like "What do your parents do?" and other uncomfortable questions.

• Again, it might help if you have thought about what to say.

Often the hard thing is dealing with other people not being able to deal with what’s happened to you. Often people say the dumbest things, so be prepared for that and try not to get too upset when they do.