Bereavement Programs Offered in 2006
Hospice Brazos Valley--Holidays Without You
Bryan, TX
http://www.hospicebrazosvalley.org/
Holidays Without You is a free evening seminar sponsored by Hospice Brazos Valley and is for anyone in our community who has experienced a death of a loved one and is facing their first holidays.
Here at Hospice Brazos Valley we have taken an interactive approach to our bereavement programs. Guest speakers will share helpful ways to survive your first holiday season without your loved one, and means of finding comfort and hope for the future. Two such ways are creating memorial garden stones or memory quilts. Examples will be on display with directions on how to complete your own. Attendees will receive a folder filled with additional important information and ideas to help you manage your grief as you maneuver though the holidays.
Various community businesses and civic groups such as: travel agencies, fitness shops, party planners, dieticians, massage therapists, community volunteer services and expressive artists will have exhibits to share helpful ideas and suggestions promoting healthful healing. Attendees are then invited to visit with those presenting ideas for spontaneous fellowship and encouragement. Attendees leave with options to work through their grief, survive their first holidays, a sense that they are not alone and that support continues to be available to them through Hospice Brazos Valley.
For more information, contact:
Joan Serber, Bereavement Coordinator
Hospice Brazos Valley
jserber@hospicebrazosvalley.org
979-821-2266
Montgomery Hospice
Rockville, MD
http://www.montgomeryhospice.org
At Montgomery Hospice, we offer workshops specifically to provide support around particular holidays. Some examples are: Winter Blues: Balancing Sorrow and Celebration While Grieving (in Nov./Dec.; Remembering Mom and Dad: A workshop for adults who have lost a parent or parents (in May/June); Forever Yours: A Valentine's Day Workshop for widow and widowers who want to honor and remember their loved ones on Valentine's Day.
We also offer Drop-In Discussion Groups on Grief and Healing in November, December, January, March, and June through September. Other examples of workshops that we offer throughout the year that provide persons with managing skills to help in their grieving and healing are ones like: Rituals and Grief: a workshop to explore the use of rituals as part of the healing process in our journey of grief; The Sounds of Grieving: exploring music and sound and how they can help support us during our grief journey and express our grief when there are no words to describe the raw and painful emotions; Quiet Moments to Grieve with Meditation: to encourage persons to explore the use of meditation and guided imagery to aid them during their grief--participants learn about and experience some meditative practices.
Participants are always encouraged to fill out an evaluation of the workshop and give us feedback to improve for the next time we offer the same. The evaluations continue to be very positive--if not, of course, we would not offer the workshop again.
Individual counselors at Montgomery Hospice are always encouraging bereaved persons to think about the use of personal and family created rituals to use on particularly difficult or important days and holidays--helping persons to be creative about the way they honor and memorialize their loved ones. We believe that these rituals go a long way in helping the bereaved to connect to their loved one, to their family members, to themselves and to that spiritual within and without themselves. Given support and encouragement, bereaved persons can be very creative in ways to help themselves.
For more information, contact:
Elaine Tiller, Director, Bereavement Care
Etiller@montgomeryhospice.org
Special Programs for Grief and the Holidays
Coping With the Holidays – Special celebrations are often difficult after a loss, but anticipating these times can be more stressful than the actual event. Hospice of Lancaster County’s PATHways Center for Grief & Loss offers a series of weekly topics for the bereaved from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving through the Tuesday after New Years. Participants are encouraged to join for some – or all – of the sessions, to help them not only get through, but perhaps discover something positive during a difficult time. Topics include: Where to Begin; Planning Ahead; Living for Today; Creating a Memory Keepsake; and Looking Forward. We end with a Potluck Dinner.
Light Up A Life – Light up a Life is a commemorative event always held on the first Wednesday evening in December. It provides an opportunity to honor those who are special in your lives. Music begins at 6:30 p.m. and the program begins at 7 p.m. Friends and family throughout the community are welcome. For many families it has become part of their tradition as a way, year after year, to enter into the holiday season remembering those who have died. Over 1,000 attend this program annually. For gifts of $20 per person or a gift of your choice, a light is designated to honor or remember special people.
Remembering Our Mothers – “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child…a long way from home.” No matter how long ago one’s mother may have died, women everywhere remember their mother each year as Mother’s Day approaches. Held on the Saturday before Mother’s Day each year, the program includes brunch and a keynote speaker as women in the community gather together to commemorate the lives of their mothers who have died. One hundred eighty attended in 2006.
PATHways Center Newsletters – This monthly publication is available to anyone who is bereaved or supporting the bereaved. People are welcome to share the newsletter with others or encourage them to call and be added to our mailing list free of charge. During the months of November, December, May and June articles are included that address ways to cope during holidays and special days such as Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, and Graduations.
PATHways Center Resource Library – Those who find the monthly PATHways Center Bereavement Newsletter helpful are encouraged to visit our Resource Library. Thanks to a $15,000 grant from the Lancaster County Foundation, a wide variety of books, journals, and videotapes about grief for both bereaved and nonbereaved children, adults, clergy, teachers, and medical professionals are available to borrow. During the November and December months, selections are featured that address ways to cope with loss during special days and holiday times.
For more information, contact:
Patti Homan, Program Director, PATHways Center for Grief & Loss
Phoman@hospiceoflancaster.org
Hospice of Lancaster, Lancaster PA
http://www.hospiceoflancaster.org
