Karolyn Grimes Quotes

My mother passed when I was in the third grade, my father when I was in the seventh, and that's when I was shipped to Los Angeles to live with an aunt.

When I was 19 years old, both of my parents died in the same year; my mom of cancer and my dad in a car accident. Through the next two or three years and a series of bad decisions - all my own, I might add - I ended up literally homeless, before that was even a word. I even slept occasionally under a pier on the Gulf Coast.

Later, my father died up in Marysville. So, my mother and I got in the car and came down to Hollywood.

I came to Harlem from West Virginia when I was three, after my mother died. My father, who was very poor, gave me up to two wonderful people, my foster parents.

My father's life was so decimated by his earliest experiences. His mother died when he was 7 years old, which he always said was the worst experience in his life. When he was 8, his father disappeared and he was on his own from the age of 8.

I was 22 when my mother died; my baby sister was 12. We had nothing. We had each other, but we had nothing.

My mother's sister was killed in a trolley car accident, so I was raised as one of eight with my sister and six male cousins.

Accidents happen, whether they're car accidents, friendly fire, drug overdoses. Accidents happen, and they're tragic. It's like a bomb that goes off and pieces of shrapnel rip into the flesh of the family. It's the families that need the compassion, because everywhere they walk, every day, someone reminds them of their loss.

If you live for your children, they may be smitten down and leave you desolate, or, what is far worse, they may desert you and leave you worse than childless in a cold and unfeeling world.

I lost my parents very early in my life. My mom died three weeks after I graduated from high school, and my dad died two years after I got married.

I lost my dad when I was younger, and I know what it's like to lose a beloved parent.

My dad died when he was 60. I was only 17 and I think, psychologically, that had a huge impact on me, probably more than I realised.

If something was to happen to part of my family, I don't know what I'd do.

While I have felt lonely many times in my life, the oddest feeling of all was after my mother, Lucille, died. My father had already died, but I always had some attachment to our big family while she was alive. It seems strange to say now that I felt so lonely, yet I did.

My sister and I were born in San Francisco. When our parents died, we came down here to live with relatives.

I lost my parents when I was fairly young.

I never really had to deal with a death in the family, let alone my brother.

My dad died when I was 23. His death was sudden and shocking - the result of a car crash - and I never got to say goodbye.

It was difficult knowing one of your cousins had lost his life.

To lose your last remaining parent is the toughest thing. It is a very lonely thing.

I lost my father was I 10 years old, and I always looked for a father. I missed my father very much.

English Prime Ministers and American Presidents, it’s amazing how many of them have lost a parent in their childhood.

I was raised an orphan... My mother died when I was 2 years old.

My dad had died when I was four, so after my mum passed away, it was her parents - my amazing Nanna and Grandad - who took me in.

After I won but then lost my world title I ended up with no money. Then my dad died in prison.