Examples of Outliving One's Offspring in Literature. As a Death Trope be aware of unmarked spoilers.
Books with their own pages
- At the end of Angela and Diabola, Diabola meets a Disney Villain Death, while her parents Currer and Mwytho survive. This isn't an entirely straight example, however: when Diabola dies, her personality is absorbed into her angelic twin sister Angela, making her a literal example of My Sibling Will Live Through Me. The twins become "Jill," a normal, good yet imperfect little girl, as they were meant to be before they were Split at Birth, and the parents live Happily Ever After raising her.
- A recurring motif in Animorphs is the eldest sibling dying horribly before the rest of their family, from Elfangor in the first book to Tom and Rachel in the last.
- In the Anne of Green Gables books, Anne and Gilbert outlive two of their seven children: Joyce, who dies in infancy, and Walter, who is killed in World War I.
- Area 51: It turns out Duncan and her husband had a son on another planet in a past life, whom they had to leave behind while fighting the Airlia, knowing they'd never see him again. He died an old man on the planet, always wondering why they left him.
- Ascendance of a Bookworm: One of the enemies the protagonist gains over the course of the story is a woman who considers her responsible for the death of her son.
- The Belgariad:
- Taiba had twin daughters who were both sacrificed by Grolim priests — which was only one of the many horrors she endured during her long enslavement.
- Belgarath has two daughters: Polgara, an ageless sorcerer like him; and Beldaran, a mortal who dies relatively young of lung disease. Polgara has a rocky relationship with Belgarath in her early life, but they bond over their shared grief at the loss.
- Belles on Their Toes, the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen, reveals that Frank Gilbreth Senior and Lillian Gilbreth's second child, Mary, died from diphtheria in 1912 at the age of 5, which explains why she was only mentioned once in the previous book.
- Blunted Lance by Max Hennessy, the middle book of the Goff Family trilogy. Retired Field Marshall Goff survives various 19th-century wars to see the end of the Great War, only to get a telegram that his son had died of injuries received in the final attack of the war. The shock kills him (fortunately his grandson is still alive to carry on the tradition in book 3).
- Bridge to Terabithia has its infamous Death by Newbery Medal ending, where at the end of the story the Burkes are attending the funeral of their only daughter, Leslie Burke.
- A Brother's Price: Ten of the twenty princesses of the realm were killed in an explosion. And this is after their father was spared the fate of Outliving One's Offspring due to being poisoned prior to said explosion. The queens have to endure losing their husband and half of their daughters. Due to Exotic Extended Marriage, it is unclear who lost a daughter and who (technically) a niece, but as their society doesn't differentiate between the two, their feelings likely don't, either.
- Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell. Diabolical Mastermind Elliot thinks this in a moment of guilt after almost all the orphans he's raised under the pretense of being his surrogate sons die in the service of his schemes.
- Bruce Coville's Book of... Nightmares II:
- The Dollhouse features elderly couple Jake and Angela Fowler, whose daughter Nadine predeceased them years before the story began (and long even before narrator Lina was ever born).
- The Gravekeeper mentions that many families lost children to the titular monster, and the losses eventually caused them to leave the area.
- The Camp Half-Blood Series
- Unless they are forgotten by everyone on Earth, the Olympians will exist for eternity, which means that they will inevitably outlive all of their demigod children, who are as mortal as any other human.
- In The Last Olympian, May Castellan outlives her son, Luke, who dies performing a Heroic Sacrifice to defeat Kronos.
- In the Bad Future portion of A Christmas Carol, Bob Cratchit and his wife have lost their son Tiny Tim because Scrooge didn't pay Bob enough money for them to afford the medical care he needed. Fortunately, this vision helps lead to Scrooge's Heel–Face Turn and in the real world Tim ends up surviving.
- The Chronicles of Dorsa:
- Tasia suffers losing her baby due to being stabbed in the stomach.
- The Adessians who had been enslaved were forced to kill their own sons.
- Happens a few times in The Chronicles of Prydain:
- In the second book, The Black Cauldron, the warrior-bard Adaon is mortally wounded while aiding the heroes in their quest, and dies. Taran meets his grieving father Taliesin in the fifth book, The High King.
- Also in The High King, Rhun, the recently-crowned King of Mona, leads a heroic battle charge and is killed in the fight. The trope is thus conferred onto his widowed mother Queen Talaria, meaning that she loses her husband and her only child within months of each other.
- In the stone-age series of Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, losing one's child too early is a common occurrence:
- Oslak and Vedna's son is killed by the demon bear during Wolf Brother.
- The Seal Clan's leader Islinn lost his son to the sickness of Tenris three years before Spirit Walker.
- Akoomik from the White Fox Clan lost her infant son only one month before Soul Eater.
- Nef the Bat Mage's son starved when the prey vanished from the Bat Clan's region of the Forest. She tried to commit suicide, only to be saved by Torak's father.
- When Seshru the Viper Mage, mother of Renn and Hord, is killed in Outcast, her son Hord has been dead for a year and a half since Wolf Brother.
- In the beginning of Oath Breaker, Bale's father has to send his murdered son on the Death Journey. What's more, his younger son was killed by Tenris' sickness only a few years earlier.
- The pyromaniacal woman from the Red Deer Clan reveals that when she was struck by a lightning that resulted in her madness, her unborn child died.
- The Mountain Clans are so used to child mortality that they don't even name them if they don't survive until the age of eight years.
- It's revealed in the climax of Ghost Hunter that the Walker, the former Otter Mage Narrander, became mad when his son Narik died in the Great Fire.
- In Ghost Hunter, Wolf and Darkfur have lost one of their three cubs to sickness, while another one is killed by Eostra's eagle owl. In Skin Taker, they lose two more cubs when the Thunderstar strikes.
- City of Light: Kail and Shial's baby dies at birth. The trauma sends Shial into catatonia.
- In the Codex Alera the First Lord of Alera Gaius Sextus and his first wife outlived their son, Septimus, and sole heir in a battle 15 years before the start of the series.
- A Cry in the Night:
- Jenny's newborn son with Erich dies several weeks after his birth, seemingly of cot death. It later turns out Erich smothered the baby and tried to gaslight Jenny into believing she'd done it.
- Rooney and Clyde discover their daughter Arden was killed a decade ago; Clyde is deeply shocked as he believed she'd just run away, while Rooney actually feels some relief to finally know what happened to Arden.
- In Daddy's Little Girl, the suffering Edward and Genine Cavanaugh go through after their eldest daughter Andrea is murdered is Played for Drama to the hilt. It ended up causing them to divorce; while Edward eventually remarried, Genine turned to alcohol which ended up causing her premature death, while their remaining daughter Ellie was inadvertently pushed to the side and resents her father, barely speaking to him for years.
- In The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud, Louise St. Cloud loses her youngest son Sam to a car accident in which her older son Charlie survives.
- An occupational hazard for some in the Deryni novels by Katherine Kurtz:
- Camber MacRorie outlives his eldest son Cathan and his grandson Davin, both of whom died violently, the latter while Camber helplessly watches via a psychic link.
- This is King Donal Haldane's recurring problem. All the offspring of his first marriage are either stillborn or die in early infancy. After his first wife dies, he remarries a younger woman to ensure the succession, but two of his four legitimate sons die in childhood, as well as the illegitimate son he sires to be an arcane protector for his heir in In the King's Service; second son Blaine saves his sister from drowning but contracts pneumonia, and youngest son Jatham suffers fatal injuries in a riding accident. The death of his youngest son hastens Donal's own demise in Childe Morgan, but time was not on Donal's side to begin with.
- Divergent: Uriah Pedrad enters a vegetative state as collateral damage of Nita's rebellion. His mother and older brother are with him when his life support is unplugged.
- One of the last people Dante talks to in the Hell of The Divine Comedy goes into detail about how he and his sons were trapped in a tower until they starved to death. For his treason, his sons died over the course of days and he could do nothing but silently watch.
- In Dolphin Song, the young dolphin Speckle is caught in a fishing net, which severely injures his flipper. His mother Shara can do nothing but watch. John tries to free Speckle, but by the time he gets him loose, Speckle has bled out.
- Given the higher infant mortality rate and other dangers in Ice Age Europe, parents outliving their children isn't uncommon in Earth's Children:
- Grod's only son was killed in the earthquake that destroyed the clan's old home, though his daughter Ovra survived.
- Ayla meets a Neanderthal woman named Oda, whose first child was accidentally killed when Oda was sexually assaulted by a Cro-Magnon man; she had been holding her baby at the time and the man shoved her to the ground to rape her, knocking her daughter from her arms and causing her to hit her head against a rock. Oda subsequently gave birth to another daughter, Ura, who is half-Clan, half-Cro-Magnon.
- Dolando and Roshario's only biological son, Doraldo, was killed in the backstory during a fight with Neanderthals, resulting in Dolando despising all Neanderthals. In The Valley of Horses, their adopted daughter Jetamio dies in childbirth and to make things even more tragic, their grandson is stillborn.
- This also applies to Jetamio's mate Thonolan, as it was his baby son who was stillborn, further compounding his grief given Jetamio had wanted a child more than anything and died trying to give birth to their baby. Thonolan refuses to see his son’s body because the baby "killed" his beloved mate, though it's implied he's just irrational from grief and shock.
- Near the end of The Mammoth Hunters, Nezzie and Talut's adopted half-Neanderthal son Rydag dies of a congenital heart defect; Ayla had been treating him with medicine but eventually his heart gives out. Although some of the Mamutoi view Rydag as 'only' an animal because he's visibly mixed, Nezzie and Talut mourn for him as they would one of their biological children, along with the rest of the Lion Camp.
- Crozie originally had four children: three daughters and a son. Unfortunately, all her children save for Fralie died when their lodge caught fire (Crozie and Fralie had been away at the time). This is part of the reason Crozie has become so bitter and cantankerous in her old age.
- Marthona and Willomar lose their son, Thonolan (Marthona's youngest son and Willomar's eldest child), in The Valley of Horses; they eventually learn of his passing in The Shelters of Stone, five years later. Thonolan - who had been deeply depressed and reckless since the death of Jetamio and their baby - had entered a lion's den and was fatally mauled, with his brother Jondalar nearly dying in the same attack. Although Marthona is obviously upset, she admits she somehow knew and accepted she wouldn't ever see him again when he left on his journey, so she's able to cope with it (plus she's already experienced other losses, such as the death of her first mate, so she's more emotionally prepared). Willomar takes it quite hard, especially because it's been so long since he last saw his son and he never got to see Thonolan have a family of his own, though he has his family for support.
- In The Shelters of Stone, it's mentioned that Tremeda had a baby between the birth of her fourth child Lavogan and her sixth child Ganamar, but the baby didn't live long. It's hinted the baby may have died as a result of neglect. Tremeda doesn't seem all that torn up by it, but it spurs her eldest daughter Lanoga to do everything she can to save her new baby sister.
- The Family Tree Series:
- Abby's mother Nell lost two children as infants in stillbirth.
- The Moresides lose their only daughter Sarah—Abby's best friend—after she drowns in an icy pond in December 1935. They end up moving away two years later.
- Luther outlives his daughter Adele, who dies of breast cancer, by two years.
- Abby (who lives to 100) outlives her only son Peter, who dies of pneumonia when Francie is in her junior year of college in the 1990s.
- The Fault in Our Stars:
- Augustus Waters' parents outlive him when his cancer comes back and claims his life.
- The reason why Peter van Houten became a Jerkass is that his daughter died of leukemia years ago, which inspired him to write An Imperial Affliction.
- Forest Kingdom: As discussed in the Hawk & Fisher spinoff series' book 1, Lord Roderik Hightower lost his son Paul to a werewolf attack a year before the series started, and has never forgiven Hawk for failing to kill the beast first.
- Fox Demon Cultivation Manual: Song Ci's parents outlive their younger son, Liang Shuli, who's murdered when he's only a child.
- Gods and Generals: Joshua and Fanny Chamberlain had three children die in infancy. "Stonewall" Jackson lost a young daughter and later a young girl he had quasi-adopted at the front. General Longstreet lost three children to scarlet fever, which haunts him further in The Killer Angels.
- Gods and Warriors:
- Akastos reveals that if his son had lived, he'd be about Hylas' age.
- Before the series began, the Man of the Woods, the father of Hylas and Issi's mother, tried to take care of his daughter's children following her death until he too passed away.
- Koronos loses his children one by one as the series progresses. He doesn't seem to be too bothered by this, though; the second book reveals that when he was told of his firstborn son's death in the first book, he merely said that he can always sire more sons. When he himself dies in the final book, only his son Pharax and grandson Telamon are left to finish off.
- GONE:
- Abana Baidoo outlives her daughter Dahra.
- Diana and Caine both outlive Gaia. Caine is then in turn outlived by both his adoptive parents and his biological mother Connie.
- Mr and Mrs Ellison outlive their son Little Pete.
- Gone with the Wind contains a tragic boatload of these:
- Scarlett O'Hara's third child Bonnie dies after her husband Rhett foolishly attempts to make her jump a high pole on her pony. Now she has to live with her two other children, Wade and Ella, whom she neglected for the majority of the book.
- Pittypat Hamilton and her brother Henry had been raising Melanie and Charles Hamilton after Pitty and Henry's brother and sister-in-law died. But Charles dies of pneumonia near the beginning of the novel and Melanie dies near the end of an ill-advised pregnancy.
- Dr. Meade and his wife Caroline lose both of their sons to the war.
- Inverted with the Tarleton family; all four of the boys die, but the girls survive.
- Hugh Calvert and his wife lose their son Raiford in the war, but Cade survives.
- Pierre Robillard ends up losing his most cherished daughter (and Scarlett’s mother) Ellen to typhoid in 1864.
- The Great Gatsby: Jay Gatsby's father is one of the few people attending his son's funeral.
- In Guild Hunter:
- Harry Potter:
- Amos Diggory's son Cedric is murdered by Wormtail in Goblet Of Fire. When Harry meets with him and his wife later, Amos is sobbing too hard to speak, while his wife is composed but numb.
- Molly and Arthur Weasley outlive their son Fred, who's killed during the Battle of Hogwarts in The Deathly Hallows.
- Word of God confirms that Nymphadora Tonks was killed by her aunt Bellatrix Lestrange, and was survived by her mother Andromeda.
- According to the House of Black Family Tree, it is established that Sirius' younger brother Regulus predeceased their mother Walburga by six years (1979 and 1985, respectively, in the books' timeline).
- The Hate U Give: Khalil’s mom outlives him when he’s shot by a cop. Starr debates whether she deserves sympathy since she was barely in his life. Her mom reminds her that was still her baby, no matter what.
- Heidi:
- The title character goes to live with her grandfather, whose dead son was her father.
- The supporting character of Klara's doctor loses his own little daughter, but takes comfort in his Intergenerational Friendship with Heidi when he goes to visit her in the Alps.
- Household Gods: Umma's daughter succumbs from the pestilence.
- The Hunger Games:
- The titular Games were built around this trope. By sending their children to die in the Games, people from the Districts are constantly reminded that they have no power to even protect their children from the wrath of the Capitol.
- Fear of losing their offspring makes Katniss Everdeen swear off the idea of having children.
- Mrs. Everdeen has to face this possibility twice when Katniss is sent into the arena, and ultimately her other daughter, Primrose, dies.
- I Heard That Song Before:
- Gladys Althorp strongly believes her daughter Susan is dead, and has had to live with the fact she doesn't know what happened to her for twenty-two years. It's soon confirmed her belief is correct when Susan’s corpse is unearthed on the edge of the Carrington estate.
- Grace Carrington's father outlived her by four years after she drowned in her pool; her mother is still alive, but has Alzheimer's disease and is barely aware of her surroundings.
- Maggie O'Neil's daughter Annie died shortly after the birth of her granddaughter; after her son-in-law disappeared and was declared legally dead, she raised Kay herself.
- Peter Carrington's unborn child died when his first wife, Grace, drowned in their pool; she was seven-and-a-half months pregnant at the time.
- Impossible Creatures (2023): Frank's daughter Charlotte was supposed to become the next guardian of the waybetween, but she died young, so her son Christopher inherits the position instead.
- InCryptid: Jonathan and Fran's son Daniel is murdered at age three in the short story The First Fall. Fran makes Jonathan promise she won't have to bury any more of their children.
- Played with in the backstory of the Iron Druid Chronicles. Sometime during the Middle Ages, the immortal druid Atticus O'Sullivan settled down in Africa, married, and had children. He managed to avert this trope by providing his wife and children with a limited version of his own immortality. His children and their children became the immortal elite of a new nation. However, after a few centuries, his wife died in a way that his magic could not prevent and he decided that it was time to move on. He was sorry that his children would die but as a druid, he felt that he has subverted nature for too long and that his descendants started to abuse their immortality. It is implied that most of the older generations of his descendants killed themselves rather than face old age.
- Island Beneath the Sea: Several enslaved mothers lose their children due to the unbearable conditions of the plantations in Saint Domingue (modern-day Haiti). More than a few Mercy Kill their children, believing they are sparing them from a Fate Worse than Death. The protagonist Zarité has to mourn the loss of her daughter Rosette, whose time in prison leaves her weak and sick and finally dies giving birth to her son.
- Jane Eyre:
- Jane's aunt Mrs. Reed briefly outlives her spoiled, ne'er-do-well son John; she suffers a fatal stroke at the news of his suicide.
- Helen Burns's never-seen father outlives his daughter off-page, though the dying Helen assures Jane that he won't miss her because he has a new wife to preoccupy him.
- In Edward Rochester's backstory, his older brother Rowland died before their father did, leaving Edward to inherit their father's wealth. This adds even more sting to his miserable marriage to Bertha, which was arranged so he would have money despite not being the heir, but which turned out to be redundant.
- The elves in the Labyrinths of Echo series are The Ageless but their offspring with other races (mainly humans) are not, resulting in the permanently youthful elven parents having to bury their non-elven children, grandchildren, and so on. This was the original reason why the elves built Kharumba, a city whose inhabitants also become ageless regardless of their species, in an effort to avert this trope.
- In the alternate history timeline The Leapfrogged Console Wars, Queen Elizabeth II outlives her son Charles and her grandson William, both of whom die in an IRA car bomb.
- The Leatherstocking Tales: In the second book The Last of the Mohicans, Chingachgook's son Uncas is killed by Magua, leaving him the Last of the Mohicans. Colonel Munro's elder daughter Cora, Uncas's Love Interest, is also killed by Magua's men.
- Les Misérables:
- Thénardier outlives his daughter Éponine and son Gavroche (both killed at the barricade), as well as their mother (who dies in prison), and loses track of his two youngest sons, whose fate on the streets is left unknown. He couldn't care less.
- Monsieur Gillenormand long outlives his daughter Mme. Pontmercy, the mother of his grandson Marius, whom he raises.
- In Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Suzanne's father and stepfather both outlive her, due to her being murdered in the backstory. Her father, Dr Smith, has never come to terms with it, while her stepfather never even knew she'd died until eleven years later due to her changing her name.
- Little House on the Prairie: In The First Four Years, Laura and Almanzo outlive their infant son.
- Little Women:
- The March parents lose their third daughter Beth to complications from scarlet fever. Sadly Truth in Television for their models, Abigail and Bronson Alcott – the latter also outlived daughter May, the model for Amy.
- Mr. Laurence outlived his son, Laurie's father, and also his granddaughter, Laurie's unnamed sister.
- In the sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys, Jo and her husband Fritz eventually adopt the orphan boy Dan as their eldest son; the ending of Jo's Boys indicates that he was killed as a young man. Two of the other students at their school (shown in the stories as not being in good health) also die fairly young, thus pinning the trope on their parents.
- The Lord of Bembibre: Don Alonso outlives his daughter when Beatriz dies from illness. However, his advanced age, the depths of his grief, and the certainty that she would probably be still alive if he had not her coerced into marrying an awful suitor, ensure that he also passes away before long.Don Alonso, the Lord of Arganza, for his part, survived the passing of his beloved and unhappy daughter only for a short time, as might be expected from his age and his deep affliction. With his death, that illustrious house was extinguished, and its property passed to very distant relatives.
- The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali: Sohail's parents are utterly devastated by his murder, which helps knock sense into Rukhsana's parents, realizing the same thing could have happened with her too just for being a lesbian.
- The main plot of The Lovely Bones is how Susie Salmon's family, including her parents, try to move on after she is raped and gruesomely murdered by a Serial Killer.
- In Magic Kingdom For Sale - Sold!, the first book of the Magic Kingdom of Landover series, Ben Holliday is grieving the loss of his pregnant wife Annie, who died in a car accident before the book starts. Part of the reason he agrees to the ridiculous-sounding premise of buying the throne of a fantasy realm is that he really doesn't care what happens to him anymore; he's an only child, and his parents, wife, and unborn child are all dead, so he feels pretty alone in the world. Later in the series, he and his second wife Willow have a daughter, and the prospect of experiencing this trope a second time scares him half to death.
- Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: Magnus' uncle, Randolph Chase, outlived his wife and two daughters, all of whom died when the ship they were in sank during a storm. This is the reason why Randolph chose to cooperate with Loki, as he promised him that he will bring them back.
- Maiden Crown: This occurs twice.
- Princess Sophie's uncle Oleg and aunt Gertrud had nine children together, all of whom died young. The grief of losing all her children sent Gertrud into a deep depression that caused her to hate the sight of Sophie and avoid her during the girl's childhood, as seeing her was a painful reminder that the only living child in her household wasn't her own.
- This later happens to Sophie and her husband, King Valdemar. She prematurely gives birth to their son out of stress, and the baby dies soon after being born. Like Gertrud, Sophie falls into depression and is too miserable to even get out of bed for a while. Her lady-in-waiting, Anna, notices the similarity and is alarmed by it.
- The Martian: After Mark is stranded on Mars, and before he reestablishes contact with NASA, he reflects on how his parents must have been told that he'd died, and how he wishes he could tell them he's alive. He decides that he'll make it up to them by surviving.
- In Nighttime Is My Time, Alice Sommers' only child Karen was murdered twenty years ago while visiting her parents; Alice and her husband found Karen's body in her room the next morning, having had no idea she'd been murdered in the night. The killer has never been found. Alice understandably still grieves for her daughter, sometimes wondering if Karen would now be successful doctor, gotten married and had children of her own if she'd lived. There's a slight silver lining in that Sam Deegan, one of the main investigators on the case, has grown close to Alice over the years, which is comforting for both of them (her husband has since died, as has Sam's wife).
- Nory Ryans Song: Anna had a son named Tague, a fisherman who fell to his death while gathering eggs from a seaside cliff. It's implied that his death is the reason for her initial reclusiveness.
- Old Kingdom: In Clariel, the antagonist has Clariel's parents killed in front of her, so when she interrupts his attempted coup with a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, she cuts down his son in front of him before killing him too.
- Patternist: Anyanwu's gift of Biomanipulation makes her The Ageless, but she has never been able to grant it to others. After outliving centuries worth of children, she joins forces with Doro, even knowing he's the epitome of Transhuman Treachery, for his promise to help her have children she won't have to bury.
- In some of the works of Jodi Picoult, such as My Sister's Keeper and Handle with Care, parents outlive their children. The parents are usually such selfish jerks that it's hard to sympathize with them. Sarah from My Sister's Keeper is especially self-centered. Her first thoughts when her younger daughter (whom she's exploited for spare parts all her life) dies in a car accident aren't about the child she lost; she's wondering what the word is for a parent who loses a child.
- Ordinary People centers a family trying to come to grips with the loss of the younger son.
- In The Portrait of a Lady, Isabel Osmond loses her infant child to an unspecified illness, and the novel ends with the death of Lydia Touchett's son Ralph.
- Taken up to eleven in Princess Dzhavakha and its sequels:
- Magomet's elder daughter Mariam dies young, and he doesn't even get to say goodbye because when he arrives at her husband's estate, she is already dead. Then his granddaughter, Mariam's daughter Nina, dies at the age of eleven from tuberculosis. Then his younger daughter Bella and her husband Izrail are killed during a thunderstorm in the mountains.
- Princess Yelena outlives one of her sons, both her daughters-in-law, her elder grandson Dato, her younger grandson Yuliko, and her granddaughter Nina.
- Nina's father Georgy is hit extremely hard by the death of his daughter. Like Magomet, he is also too late to her deathbed and arrives in Saint-Petersburg only in time for the funeral.
- Rainwater: When Ella was three, her parents had twin sons who both died in infancy. After that, they both succumbed to depression and alcoholism. They were both dead by the time Ella was nineteen, leaving her in charge of the household.
- This is one of the central themes of Reconstructing Amelia, with single mother Kate having to deal with the sudden death of her 15-year-old daughter under mysterious circumstances. Several times she brings up that, due to her age, she's unlikely to ever have another, either.
- In The Red Abbey Chronicles, the protagonist's younger sister died in a hunger winter, though it is not clear whether starvation or sickness was the cause. (They tried to make her eat, but she was too weak, perhaps due to a history of malnutrition). This is the reason why the parents decide to send the protagonist to the Red Abbey; they might never see her again, but she'll have enough to eat.
- Red Queen:
- Midway through the first book, Mare Barrow's older brother Shade is reported to have been killed on the frontlines of Norta's war with the Lakelands, outliving his parents, Daniel and Ruth. He actually survives and goes into hiding so he can serve the Scarlet Guard. But then Double Subverted when he ends up being killed for good in Glass Sword.
- Diana Farley's younger sister died when their hometown was flooded by the Cygnets, outliving their father, General Willis Farley.
- Retired Witches Mysteries:
- During book 2, one of the victims of the sea witch is a young witch named Sam, whose mother Belinda is a friend of Molly and her coven.
- Another witch introduced in book 2 is Emma. While visiting her, the coven learns that her daughter Brandy died of cancer the year before.
- Revival: Jacobs loses his wife and young son to a car crash, while Jacobs lives another fifty years.
- The Riftwar Cycle: By the time of the Serpentwar Saga, Pug of Stardock had already outlived his wife by several decades. The casualties of that war included his son, his adopted daughter, her husband, and their son. In the time skips between story arcs, Pug would then go on to outlive one of his great-grandsons as well. Thanks to a battle in a later Riftwar, he would also go on to outlive his second wife and one of his sons by that marriage as well.
- The protagonist of Sarny ends up living to 98 and outlives both her children.
- Toklo's mother Oka from Seeker Bears has lost all of her cubs prior to her current litter. After her son Tobi dies and it turns out there's no salmon in their usually plentiful river, she abandons the surviving twin Toklo due to being unable to watch another one of her children die. Oka later ended up dying but she gave a final message to another protagonist to give to Toklo.
- The Shadowhunter Chronicles:
- Inquisitor Imogen Herondale outlived her son, Stephen, who joined the Circle and died during the Uprising.
- Robert and Maryse Lightwood outlive their youngest son, Max, who is killed by Sebastian during the attack on Alicante in City of Glass.
- Jocelyn Fray thinks that she lost her son, Jonathan, in the Uprising years ago. In reality, he was secretly raised by his father, Valentine. Though played straight when he is killed by Jace, resurrected, then killed again by Clary.
- Edmund and Linette Herondale lost their eldest daughter, Ella, after their son, Will, accidentally released a Greater Demon who attacked her.
- Tessa Gray is doomed to live this life as an immortal who can have children but not pass her immortality to them. At the end of Clockwork Princess, it is revealed that Tessa has two children with Will, James and Lucie, but they predecease her, as do the former's son, grandson, great-grandson, and great-great-grandson.
- In Queen of Air and Darkness, Elena Larkspear outlives her children, Dane and Samantha, who die within days of each other.
- The Maryse Lightwood of Thule not only had to lose Max, but also Isabelle (slain by Sebastian) and Alec (committed suicide after being forced to kill Magnus Bane).
- Gideon and Sophie Lightwood lose their eldest daughter, Barbara, to Mandikhor poison in Chain of Gold.
- Part of the plot of The Last Hours is Tatiana Blackthorn attempting to resurrect her son, Jesse, who died as a teenager.
- In Chain of Thorns, Christopher Lightwood dies defending the London Institute during the Watchers' attack, outliving his parents Gabriel and Cecily.
- The Silerian Trilogy: Ronall loses his unborn child with Jalilar when she's killed. He laments that it's probably the only child he'd ever have.
- Star Trek:
- In The Next Generation novel Q-in-Law by Peter David, Lwaxana Troi admits to Q that all her flamboyant personality quirks and her devotion to sacred Betazoid relics are a routine to sublimate the soul-clenching terror she feels in her every waking moment about her baby girl serving on a starship in deep space. What makes it worse is that Lwaxana is one of Betazed's most powerful telepaths, and she believes that no matter how far away Deanna is, Lwaxana would know instantly if her life ended.
- This is fulfilled in David's later novel Imzadi: Deanna Troi dies in an alternate timeline in 2368; at that moment, light years away, Lwaxana wakes up in her home and does not stop screaming for two hours. She remains broken by her daughter's death until her own passing in 2408, breaking out of her BSOD just before her death to tell that timeline's Riker that it was his fault and he should burn in hell. Riker prevents the timeline from occurring by using the Guardian of Forever to travel back in time and preventing the poisoning that had caused Deanna's death in the alternate timeline.note
- Star Wars Legends:
- Han and Leia Solo outlive two-thirds of their children, with Anakin dying in the Yuuzhan Vong war and Jacen getting offed by their one surviving child following his Face–Heel Turn.
- Chewbacca was killed early in the Yuuzhan Vong War while his father Attichitcuk is still alive.
- Star Wars: Kenobi:
- A'Yark has lost five of her six sons by the time the story begins. Her youngest son A'Deen is killed by settlers about halfway through.
- Orrin Gault lost his younger son Varan in an accident five years ago. His older son Mullen is killed in the climax.
- The Stormlight Archive: Navani Kholin spends most of Words of Radiance believing that her daughter, Jasnah, is dead (when she'd actually just faked it to fool her attackers). She keeps her grief under control but spends most of the book keeping Jasnah's ward Shallan at arm's length. Jasnah finally returns in Oathbringer which relieves Navani of her grief only for her son Elhokar to be Killed Off for Real during a mission to try and reclaim their home city.
- Survivor Dogs: This pops up every so often due to Anyone Can Die. For example, one of Moon and Fiery's pups was killed by foxes and Lucky's surrogate son was mauled by Blade.
- Sweet & Bitter Magic: Wren's parents lost her brother years prior during the mystical plague in the Year of Darkness. It left both wounded, hating magic as the cause of the plague, and thus witches as well due to this.
- In the Sword of Truth series, it is mentioned that Verna used to have a daughter who died of old age decades ago. Verna lived in a Wizarding School under a spell that slows aging, and if a wizard or a sorceress there had a Muggle Born of Mages, he or she was given up for adoption.
- In Sholem Aleichem's Tevye and His Daughters (a.k.a. Tevye the Dairyman), Tevye and his wife Golde lose their fourth daughter Shprintze when she drowns herself over a failed love affair. Averted in Fiddler on the Roof, however, where she's just a little girl and Spared by the Adaptation.
- In The Thorn Birds, Paddy and Fiona lose their young son Hal not long after the family relocates from New Zealand to Australia. Fiona later loses Paddy himself and another son, Stuart, following the big fire on the Drogheda estate. Her daughter Meggie, meanwhile, eventually loses her son Dane in the third act of the novel. (Hal was omitted from the Made-for-TV Movie of the book, which also killed off Fiona's oldest son Frank.)
- They Both Die At The End
- At the start of the story, Mateo Torrez, whose mother is dead and whose father is in a coma, receives a call stating that he'll die in 24 hours. Mateo dies near the end of the story, while Mr. Torrez appears to be in no danger of dying.
- Victor, the Death-Cast herald who calls Rufus to inform him of his death, informs him that an hour ago, he called a mother to inform her that her four-year-old child is going to die that day, resulting in the mother being distraught and heartbroken.
- In Time Enough for Love, Lazarus Long is the oldest human at over twenty-three centuries old. The next oldest is about a thousand years younger. All of the children he fathered in the first thousand years of his life have died, and no doubt many of those born later than that are dead too. Also, in The Tale of the Adopted Daughter, his and Dora's daughter Persephone dies in infancy. As this trope is a natural consequence of indefinite lifespans, it's probably why Howard parents tend to distance themselves from their adult children; even though Lazarus' son Zaccur, at around a century and a half, is his business partner in the aforementioned story, they're more like friends than father and son. Lazarus' mother, Maureen, experiences this with all her offspring except Lazarus himself. In her case, it's due to time-travelling and skipping about two thousand years.
- Tolkien's Legendarium:
- In The Hobbit, Thorin Oakenshield's younger sister Dís outlives both of her young sons, Fíli and Kíli. She is also the last surviving member of their immediate family and the direct line of Durin the Deathless.
- The Lord of the Rings:
- This is why Elrond is so against Aragorn and Arwen's marriage; allowing her to marry a mortal means she must give up her own immortality. He does accept it, however, with the provision that Aragorn reclaim his ancestral throne, and once that is accomplished Elrond escorts her to the wedding and bids them both a fond but sad farewell for the last time.
- Théoden loses his son Théodred while he is influenced and enfeebled by his Evil Chancellor.
- The beginning of Denethor's downfall is when he learns of the death of his son Boromir. When he later learns that his second son Faramir was also mortally wounded, he completely loses it and is Driven to Suicide — prematurely, as it happens, because Faramir survives his wounds.
- Lobelia Sackville-Baggins loses her son Lotho when he is killed (and possibly eaten) by Grima Wormtongue; she dies a few months later.
- In Appendix A, we learn that Thráin II lost his second son, Thorin Oakenshield's younger brother Frerin, in the final battle of the War of the Dwarves and Orcs. Also, Thráin's uncle Grór lost his son Náin (Dáin Ironfoot's father) in that battle—galvanizing Child Soldier Dáin to slay Azog. Balin and Dwalin's father Fundin also died in the battle, outlived by his father Farin, also the grandfather of Óin and Glóin and great-grandfather of Gimli.
- The Silmarillion:
- The Noldorin High King Finarfin outlives not only his own whole family (sans his daughter Galadriel), but also all his brothers offspring (though his eldest son Finrod winds up being Back from the Dead). Both Fëanor and Fingolfin get killed, and also each and every one of their children and grandchildren, with the exceptions of Galadriel, Idril, Earendil, Elrond, and Maglor, who is banned forever from returning to the Undying Lands.
- Fingolfin outlives his two younger children; his youngest son Argon (unmentioned in the published Silmarillion) is killed in battle shortly after Fingolfin arrives in Middle-Earth and his daughter Aredhel is killed by her husband (who was trying to kill their son) before Fingolfin's own death in single combat with Morgoth.
- Hurin and Morwen outlive all three of their children; Urwen (known as Lalaith) dies at the age of 3 of sickness, and Nienor and Turin commit suicide after learning they committed incest. Hurin and Morwen's last meeting is at Turin's gravestone.
- Turin outlives his unborn child with Nienor when she commits suicide upon learning what they had done.
- Earendil and Elwing outlive their son Elros because he chose to become human. Their other son Elrond is still alive, but since Earendil orbits the Earth, it's unlikely they'll see him again.
- In The Twilight Saga:
- Carlisle turned Esme into a vampire after she attempted suicide. The trigger of her attempted suicide was the death of her baby, who died shortly after his birth.
- Quil's grandfather, Old Quil, makes an appearance in "Eclipse". Word of God says that Quil's father, who Edward calls Quil Ateara Sr., is dead before the beginning of the series. This is implied in the series itself in that Quil's mother and grandfather are both mentioned as being around during the series but his father isn't. The only reference to Quil's father contrasts him with Sam's father, who "isn't much of a father".
- Two Little Girls in Blue:
- Margaret and Steve are led to believe one of their daughters, Kathy, was accidentally killed by the kidnappers and buried at sea, meaning they can't even bring her body back for a funeral. Monsignor Romney lampshades that no matter how old the child, it's one of the most devastating losses a person can go through. Of course, we're aware that Kathy is currently still alive, with Margaret quickly coming to believe this too, though her belief is initially dismissed as grief.
- Norman and Theresa had twin sons, but they were born too early and died soon after. They were both devastated and Theresa ended up leaving Norman. Norman later learned that Theresa was pregnant with twins again by her second husband, while he never remarried or had more kids, and still mourns what he could've had, musing that his sons would be twenty-one years old now if they'd lived. It takes an even darker turn when it's revealed he murdered Theresa after learning of her new pregnancy.
- In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Augustine and Marie St. Clare outlive their angelic little daughter Eva when she proves to be Too Good for This Sinful Earth. Various other characters have also lost children in infancy or early childhood as was all too common for the time period: slave couple Eliza and George Harris lost their first two children in infancy, which enhances Eliza's desperation not to let her only surviving child, Harry, be sold away from her.
- The Underland Chronicles, Luxa's mother Judith had died before the series starts. And her twin brother, presumed dead before the beginning of the series, turns up alive at the beginning of the 3rd book and dies at the end. Their parents are both alive until the 5th book.
- This sometimes occurs in Under Suspicion, given the novels revolve around investigating unsolved murders.
- In The Cinderella Murder, Rosemary and Jack Dempsey were both heartbroken to learn their 19-year-old daughter Susan had been murdered the same night as Jack's birthday, and that the police were never able to discover who did it. It's made even worse for them considering that Susan was their only child and they had to wait ten years before she was born, thinking they might never have children. Three years ago Jack died of a stroke; Rosemary always believed it was brought on by his grief for Susan and the stress of not knowing who killed her and why. Although the widowed Laurie can empathise with Rosemary to some extent, she admits she has no idea what it must be like to lose a child and she's determined to help Rosemary get answers.
- All Dressed in White has two occurrences of this:
- Carly Romano's parents tragically outlived their daughter, who was a twenty-year-old junior at Colby College when she was murdered.
- A little over halfway through the novel, an anonymous tip leads the police to Amanda's body, confirming she was murdered. Even though they already knew she was likely dead, her parents still take the loss of their youngest child hard; Sandra admits a small part of her clung to the hope that Amanda might be alive, which is what Walter desperately hoped for as well. The discovery of the body and the subsequent arrest of the killer does at least give them some closure after not knowing what happened for over five years.
- In The Sleeping Beauty Killer, James Raleigh's eldest son Hunter was killed fifteen years ago. James still deeply mourns Hunter, saying that while he'd also had to endure the premature deaths his eldest brother (whom he also considered his best friend) and his beloved wife, the death of his son was his most devastating loss; he never imagined he would outlive his son and mourns the loss of everything Hunter could've gone on to achieve. Hunter was also his favourite son and heir, with James regarding his remaining son Andrew as a disappointment.
- In You Don't Own Me, Cynthia and Robert Bell's only child Martin was murdered five years ago. Out of desperation to solve his murder, they turn to Laurie Moran, demanding she feature the case on Under Suspicion seeing as the police's investigation has stalled. Laurie isn't keen on their attempts to railroad Kendra (their daughter-in-law) as the only suspect and has her doubts Martin was as perfect as they claim, but after seeing how heartbroken they are, she reminds herself that whatever Martin's flaws were, Robert and Cynthia loved him and are grieving parents who want answers.
- In Piece of My Heart, Sandra Carpenter's only daughter Michelle died of a drug overdose six months before her biological grandson Johnny was kidnapped, with Sandra noting that Johnny is the "last living piece of [her] little girl" she has left even though she hasn't seen her grandson for seven years due to him being adopted (especially given she and Michelle were all but estranged at the time of her death).
- Anyone Can Die in Warrior Cats, meaning that this trope is everywhere. The most extreme example of this trope has to be Dustpelt; he outlives five of his seven children, and his mate. He's so broken that he's happy to die!
- The Well at the World's End: The Lady of Abundance's first son was killed in front of her by enemy soldiers, and her second son died of an illness during the period of famine that followed the war. She has no living children.
- Where Are the Children?:
- Played for Drama in Nancy's case; her children by her first husband Carl, Peter and Lisa, went missing seven years ago and were found dead two weeks later. Nancy was put on trial for their murders and although she was convicted, her conviction was later overturned. Carl believed Nancy was guilty and took his own life; Nancy moved to the other side of the country, where she's done her best to deal with her grief and move on with her life.
- It's mentioned that Thurston Givens' only child died during the flu epidemic back in 1917. Consequently, he strongly empathises with the Eldredges when their children go missing.
- Chase Andrews in Where the Crawdads Sing is murdered. His mother offers crucial information for the investigation and his parents are front row for the trial of Kya.
- In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff outlives his son Linton. Not that he cares much.
