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Chapter Leader:
Jerry Palady
Webmaster/Editor:
Bill Campbell
THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS NATIONAL OFFICE TCF ON FACEBOOK CHASE COMMUNITY GIVING CHARITIES
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Grief Support After the Death of a Child
The mission of The Compassionate Friends is to assist families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age and to provide information to help others be supportive.
The Compassionate Friends is a national nonprofit, self-help support organization that offers friendship, understanding, and hope to bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. There is no religious affiliation and there are no membership dues or fees.
The secret of TCF's success is simple: As seasoned grievers reach out to the newly bereaved, energy that has been directed inward begins to flow outward and both are helped to heal. The vision of The Compassionate Friends is that everyone who needs us will find us and everyone who finds us will be helped.
“The Compassionate Friends is about transforming the pain of grief into the elixir of hope. It takes people out of the isolation society imposes on the bereaved and lets them express their grief naturally. With the shedding of tears, healing comes. And the newly bereaved get to see people who have survived and are learning to live and love again.” —Simon Stephens, founder of The Compassionate Friends
The Compassionate Friends of Southwest Dallas County meets on the third Tuesday of each month in the parlor of the First United Methodist Church in Duncanville. The church address is 403 S. Main St. The parlor is located behind the church at 206 W. Daniel St. PLEASE NOTE THAT CHILD CARE DURING MEETINGS IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE.
When you come to a meeting of The Compassionate Friends, we ask that you attend at least three meetings before you decide if the group is for you. For many, the first meeting may also be the first time they’ve been able to talk about what has happened to them and to their family and to the child. This can bring a lot of emotion to the forefront, emotion which seems to disappear over the months as you talk about your loss. Don’t worry, we’ll bring the tissues. Tears are a natural release for a grieving person and is a way to help cleanse the body of toxins.
If you’re shy or unable to talk about your loss, you do not have to speak, although you will have the opportunity. Some people believe it’s harder to talk in front of strangers about something so intimate as the loss of a child, but because everyone else at the meeting has had a similar experience, they understand much of what you are feeling and you will eventually reach a comfort level with those you meet. A point to always keep in mind is that what is said in the meeting stays in the meeting. The privacy of our members is important. We’re all there to work toward healing. It may be hard for you to believe, but occasionally you will hear laughter. This is not a dishonor to any child. Rather it is often a reaction to a wonderful memory of a child.
Please check out The Compassionate Friends national website at the left and sign up for the E-Newsletter.
If you would like to be added to the Compassionate Friends of Southwest Dallas E-Newsletter list, email Bill Campbell at the left.
We need not walk alone. We are The Compassionate Friends. We reach out to each other with love, with understanding and with hope.
The children we morn have died at all ages and from many different causes, but our love for them unites us. Your pain becomes my pain just as your hope becomes my hope.
We come together from all walks of life, from many different circumstances. We are a unique family because we represent many races and creeds and relationships. We are young, and we are old. Some of us are far along in our grief, but others still feel a grief so fresh and so intensely painful that we feel helpless and see no hope.
Some of us have found our faith to be a source of strength, while some of us are struggling to find answers.
Some of us are angry, filled with guilt or in deep depression,while others radiate an inner peace. But whatever pain we bring to this gathering of The Compassionate Friends,it is pain we will share, just as we share with each other our love for our children who have died.
We are all seeking and struggling to build a future for ourselves, but we are committed to building a future together.
We reach out to each other in love to share the pain as well as the joy, share the anger as well as the peace, share the faith as well as the doubts, and help each other to grieve as well as to grow.
WE NEED NOT WALK ALONE.
WE ARE THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS.
The Compassionate Friends Credo
