Remembrance service helps residents work past grief
Dec. 16—Feelings of grief after losing loved ones can increase during the holidays, which inspires efforts like that of Freudenthal Hospice's annual Celebration of Life service Thursday.
The remembrance memorial at Brookdale Presbyterian Church this year featured a joint effort from Grief Share and Freudenthal.
After St. Joseph resident Phyllis Johnson's husband died earlier this year, she participated in Grief Share's 13-week grief support group. The support group and Thursday's service greatly helped Johnson deal with her husband's death.
"Everybody grieves in different ways and some people are — it takes a long time," she said. "Others can, kind of, move through it. And then years later, they hear a song and the memory comes back. So, at this point, I'm experiencing some of that stuff but I'm prepared for it."
Some people feel like they've been abandoned by friends or family because they aren't around when needed, but it's important to keep in mind that people deal with grief differently, Grief Share Coordinator Mary Noel-Owens said. She said it might actually be that those friends or family are staying away because they don't know how to provide comfort or what to say.
"You hear so many people say, 'My friends just don't get it or my family doesn't get it; how I feel,'" she said. "They come in — take a brave step — come into a place where they don't know anyone, but they are hurting and they need some support."
Sharing grief is becoming more widely accepted but it's still a new concept for many people, Noel-Owens said. It's a positive trend she started to notice during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I see more and more people saying, 'Yes, I need help,' and coming," she said. "And I think, maybe, the whole idea that grief takes as long as it takes, I mean, that's the concept that we try to get across."
While it may start as a means of coping with the death of a loved one, grief support groups often grow outside the sessions, to the point where members maintain friendships after the program ends, Noel-Owens said.
Alex Simone can be reached at alex.simone@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter at @NPNOWSimone.
