For related links on loss and grief Click here

Local Support Groups

North Side
Family Hospice and Palliative Care, Bidwell Presbyterian Church, 1025 Liverpool, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., the third Monday of each month. Free and open to the public. Preregister at 412-572-8829.

Monroeville
Grief Share - meets Monday nights 6:30 PM-7:30 PM. Monroeville Assembly of God Room 103. Facilitated by:Sandi Rop. Christ-centered perspective. Each grief share session includes a video seminar and group discussion. Free and open to the public. Preregister at: 412-856-7900 ext. 23

Pittsburgh Area
Forbes Hospice. Various times and locations. Call Kevin Henry, Bereavement Coordinator for times and locations at (412) 325-7200

Armstrong County
Overdose and Suicide Integrated Support Group (OASIS). Second Tuesday of every month, 7:00 p.m. Conference Room 2, second floor Armstrong County Memorial Hospital, Kittanning. To preregister, call Jolene at 724-431-3520. Registration is recommended, but not required. The group is open to residents who live inside and outside of Armstrong County.

A Poem by Jane Kenyon

What Came to Me

I took the last
dusty piece of china
out of the barrel.
It was your gravy boat,
with a hard, brown
drop of gravy still
on the porcelain lip.
I grieved for you then
as I never had before.

Keys To Healing










Tell your story.

Give yourself time to feel.

Talk about the person you have lost.

Reach out to others.

Don't place time limits on your grief.

Build new rituals and traditions.

Write about your loss.

Use art or music as expression.

Find ways to commemorate.

Relieve stress in healthy ways.

Embrace change.

Recreate what is meaningful.

Open to Hope Network

The Other Side oF Sadness


What the New Science of Bereavement Tells Us About Life After Loss

By George A. Bonanno


New York Times book review: December 29, 2009
by Abigail Zuger, M.D.

Resilience, Not Misery, in Coping With Death

Poets ramble on at length about mortality, but it was an anonymous World War I lyricist who probably said it best: “The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling for you but not for me.” We can visualize other people’s deaths, but not so much our own (“For me the angels sing-a-ling-a-ling”).

Unfortunately, this standard psychic defense routinely backfires. We may aim all our fears outward, but then they boomerang back to fill us with terror. When our loved ones die, how will we manage without them? When the worst possible news hits — and it will — how will we survive? Click to read the rest of the article.

 

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