Spouse is to widow as parent is to...?

Factual Questions
1

If a child dies is the parent still a parent (presuming it was an only child) or is there a specific term?

2

AFAIK, there is no term for a parent who has lost a child. The closest I’ve ever seen is “bereaved” or “grieving” parent. A quick search of The Compassionate Friends, which is a support organization for grieving parents, shows no special term.

And, yes, the parent of a deceased child is still a parent. The death of a child doesn’t change that.

3

“Orphan”, right? The title question asks what do you call a person who has lost their parent, as analogous to a widow being a person who has lost their spouse, right? Or is the title question intended as a phrasing of “what do you call a parent who has lost a child”?

4

I can easily see how the title of the thread is ambiguous. But please read the first post, and you’ll easily see how the question is about how to refer to the parent.

5

No, I mean, did the OP read “Spouse is to widow as parent is to…?” someplace and perhaps misinterpret the question to be asking how to refer to the parent, or was the original question how to refer to the parent and it got rephrased ambiguously for a title? I can see the question either way, but it’s not clear which one prompted the posting.

6

The title could be read as:
Spouse (original term) is to widow (new term after partner is dead) as parent (original term) is to… (new term after child is dead)?
or
Spouse (dead person) is to widow (surviving partner) as parent (dead person) is to… (surviving child)?

But the actual content of the OP goes on to clarify, “If a child dies is the parent still a parent.” There is no room for the second interpretation if you’ve read the entire post (or even half the sentence).

7

Hopefully not also a widow >_>

8

Exactly. We have six grandchildren, one of whom is deceased. (And another is on the way.)