“The one thing I miss about my brother is: The shelter that was removed from over my head when I had an older brother who cared for me. He was like a father figure. The day he passed away, the next day, I felt that my shelter had been taken away.” – Sheheryar Munawar
On Siblings Day, we pay tribute to all the people who have lost a sibling in their lives. One such person is Pakistani actor and celebrity Sheheryar Munawar. Sheheryar lost his elder brother unexpectedly, and here he talks about how to grieve for the loss of a loved one, and then celebrate that life as well!
“Having an elder brother makes you feel protected. When he passed away, I felt alone, kind of nude. That’s the biggest thing. Just the warmth and the love that you get. That’s the biggest thing.” reminisces Sheheryar.
If I could tell him something now – If I could, I’d tell him how much I appreciated the way he was with me. He always kept the elder brother-younger brother thing going. So in that equation, I really appreciated the relationship he had built around us.
As a younger brother, it’s only when you lose a brother, an older brother, that you realize you’ve lost a beautiful thing. That’s human nature, that you only realize it when you lose something. That’s the only regret I have, that I wish I could go back and tell him what he meant to me.
Watch full interview by Sheheryar here: Sheheryar Munawar on Losing his Older Brother
Sheheryar recounts many fond childhood memories with his older siblings, memories that he cherishes now:
“At home, I was the oppressed one my eldest brother was a prankster. I was the most docile. We were a very close, tight-knit circle. Once while playing hide and seek, my older siblings conspired together and asked me to hide inside a wooden crate. And once I was in, they locked me and left to play … and forgot about me! I was younger than them, so they really didn’t want to play with me too much. But it’s all good. I used to get back at them in my own ways.”
My advice for people who have lost a sibling:
“It took me sometime because I completely ignored the healing process. The acceptance came very late for me because I was in denial. I tried to deal with it by distracting myself with work. I completely jumped into work and started working 12 hours a day. It came to a point that I was going to crash if I didn’t let out all of these things. And that is why the grieving process is so necessary. Take that time to grieve. It’s a process, you have to go step by step. You can’t jump 2 classes ahead. It’s not like that. That happened to me, and I suffered because of it.”
“Indulge in the grieving process and then celebrate that life.” – says Sheheryar Munawar, and we so agree!
