We had 10 parents at our September meeting. Val read a poem ‘Just for Today’ by V. Tushingham (taken from the Bereaved Parents Group of the USA Tampa Bay Newsletter, September 2001). Parents could associate with the reading. The discussion during the evening was fairly light as some of the parents shared some of their holiday experiences. There were tears when we spoke about the children who are not here anymore as the loss and pain is still felt even after years. The group allows parents to express their sadness freely.

Parents shared their experience about getting a headstone for their child’s grave. It seems that this is very costly and not always straight forward. Some felt that seeing the gravestone make the death of their child so final and very hard to cope with it.

Val informed us that a bench will be put into Woburn Garden in the spot where we have planted snowdrops. It will be on the 11th December when we have our Tree service. We are very grateful to the Duchess of Bedford and her staff to make this possible.

The tree service will be Sunday 11th December from 2.45, it will give parents the opportunity to dress the tree with ornaments with their child’s name on it. More details end of October.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday 20th October at 7.30 at AGE UK, The Peartree Centre, 1 Chadds Lane

Milton Keynes MK6 3EB

Any bereaved parent is welcome.