Missing your parents as an adult, when you're a parent yourself, is often less about big moments and more about wanting someone to take care of you for once. That longing to be somebody's kid again is normal and common, and it isn't childish. You can't get your parents back, but you can let other people, and their old comforts, hold some of what they used to.

Feeling orphaned as an adult is real at 30 and at 60: when both parents are gone, nobody is left whose job was to worry about you, brag about you or remember you as a baby. It's grief and loneliness tangled together. It eases when you let a few people take care of you and keep your bond with your parents in small, ordinary ways.