The Keeper of Secrets

The Keeper of Secrets: Helping Little Hearts Cope with Grief

A Gentle Children’s Bereavement Book for Ages 6–9

When someone we love experiences memory loss and passes away, a child’s world can suddenly feel completely unravelled.

The Keeper of Secrets is a deeply compassionate children’s grief book designed to help young readers understand and cope with the "double grief" of witnessing a grandparent live with dementia and navigate the finality of their death. Through a gentle story and supportive themes, this book helps children process the complex, confusing physical and emotional feelings that follow a long goodbye.

Told through the eyes of Hannah, a young London girl whose beloved grandmother, Nana, develops dementia and eventually dies, the story explores how love remains permanent, even when memories fade.

The Keeper of Secrets gently explores:

• The confusion and sadness of watching a grandparent change due to dementia

• Big physical feelings like a "wobbly tummy," anger, worry, and isolation

• The difficult moment of feeling "forgotten" by someone you love

• The finality of death and navigating the initial silence of bereavement

• How actively protecting memories can transform a child's grief into a lasting legacy

Includes The Script-Keeper’s Toolkit for Children At the heart of the story is the powerful idea that when a loved one can no longer hold their own memories, we can step up to hold their stories for them. Children will learn that while an illness can change a person's brain, their love is a permanent secret tucked too deep to ever be reached or erased.

Children will also learn:

• The Keeper’s Breath: A simple somatic tool to blow away tight, angry worries like grey smoke

• The Memory Safe: How to build a physical "Backup-Brain" to lock away treasured family stories

• The Memory-Mapping Jar: A creative, hands-on activity to map out permanent stripes of love

• That sharing family stories and cultural traditions keeps someone's light permanently alive

This makes the book ideal for:

• Parents and guardians supporting a child through a grandparent's illness and passing

• Primary schools, teachers, and pastoral staff

• School counsellors, child therapists, and pediatric psychologists

• Dementia and bereavement support groups

• Families seeking to talk openly about memory loss and death using clear, honest language

The Keeper of Secrets offers absolute reassurance, structural safety, and lasting hope. Even when a piece is missing from our family map, the love we carry ensures that the story never truly unravels.

Written by Wayne Hutchinson & Nadeen Swaby of Handle My Affairs.
Helping families navigate life’s most difficult moments with clarity, compassion and practical support.