Officials at the Children's Bereavement Center of the Rio Grande Valley said they're seeing more families who have lost loved ones due to COVID-19. 

Lisa Moreno, a counselor with the center, said it's been even harder during this time because COVID-19 has disrupted traditional ways of looking at death – such as being able to go to funerals or being next to family members during their final hours.

The Children's Bereavement Center said their client numbers jumped from 300 in 2020 to more than 550 this year. They believe that number will keep growing.

Moreno said families who are trying to help a child cope with the loss of a loved one need to be more direct and honest.

"It is not always helpful to tell a child not to feel the way they feel. It's not helpful when we've gone through something very difficult to tell people don't cry,” Moreno said. "What we want to do is we want to use language like dead and death and the body stopped working, because those are very concrete concepts that aren't going to be confusing."

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