This month we welcomed some old faces back to the group for a chat and some support and we dusted off the hand made tree topper we use on the groups memorial tree at Woburn Abbey over the Christmas period.

For some parents attending each month is either not possible, or not required, but the group with it’s friendly familiar faces is always there when as a bereaved parent you need that extra bit of support….

As a group we spoke about grief, how we cope and how some people embrace the pain, and never want it to leave them.  For these people it is this pain and burden of grief which allows them to carry on, knowing that they will never forget the child that they have lost. For others the weight of grief if debilitating, and all consuming meaning they find it difficult to some days even function at the basis level.

The topic also turned to how grief can “sneak up on you”  How as a parent you perceive to be having a good , even “normal” day when all it takes is a smell, a song on the radio, or an innocent post on social media to send you spiralling out of control, so unexpectedly.

Sharing experiences with each other, and stories of our children help us all feel we are not the only one on this rollercoaster of emotion and that it’s normal to experience these feeling and thoughts.

As always, Jean and Nancy kept everyone fuelled with tea, coffee, biscuits and tissues and Ursula opened the meeting with a passage from one of the books in the groups library all about the weight of Greif.
We closed with the statement below….. We thought it summed up what the group was all about.