The Compassionate Friends is an international self-help group for bereaved parents. Its mission is to help bereaved parents cope effectively with their grief and help foster their physical and emotional health. If your child has died or if you know of someone whose child has died, please feel free to contact The Compassionate Friends at [email protected]
For more information, please visit our
national website: www.tcfcanada.net. The Compassionate Friends (TCF) offers friendship, understanding, grief education and hope for the future to other families who have suffered the death of a child at any age.
“Grief becomes a tolerable and creative experience only when love enables it to be shared with someone who really understands.”
Rev. Simon Stephens, TCF Founder
What is The Compassionate Friends international organization? The Compassionate Friends is an international self-help, non-profit organization, offering friendship, understanding, grief education and HOPE for the future to all bereaved parents who have experienced the death of a child at any age, from any cause. Our Purpose is to aid in the positive reconciliation of grief and foster the physical and emotional health of bereaved parents. Membership is open to all bereaved parents. There are no membership fees. What is The Compassionate Friends Southeastern New Brunswick Chapter? We are part of TCF Canada national organization. We are bereaved parents in the area of southeastern New Brunswick who participate in self-help services to help us cope with the loss of our child and to move towards wellness with regard to our loss. What services do we provide locally for bereaved parents? o There are two support groups available, and parents can participate in either or both of them:
• Monthly sharing meetings that take place on a weekday evening from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in a private, quiet, neutral location. Participants are welcome to just listen to the sharing of other parents, as there is no pressure to speak. Only bereaved parents attend these meetings except for professionals who are periodically invited to share with us some aspect of grief reconciliation to encourage and equip us with helpful information for our journeys.
• A more intensive support group of parents meets once a week for two-hour sessions for 8 to 10 weeks and is led by two facilitators who are themselves bereaved parents. This group takes place twice a year, in the Spring and in the Fall. Once this group commences, no new participants are added until the next group begins. Parents will have the opportunity to share their own grief experience and listen to the experience of others in a confidential and supportive setting. The sessions cover a range of topics including coping styles, relationships with family and friends, keeping memories alive, and other topics of discussion. Each parent is allowed the time to share and will realize that they are not alone. All discussions in the support groups are confidential. There is no fee to participate, although pre-registration is required for the 10-week group. o A library of books, pamphlets, and DVDs that provide information to help us in our journey. At every monthly meeting of the Southeastern New Brunswick Chapter of the Compassionate Friends, the books from our Library collection are displayed. Most of the books have been donated by parents in memory of their children. The books may be borrowed for as long as you need them and returned when you plan to attend one of our meetings. A complete list of our books with descriptions is available. We are presently adding new titles. Early on in my own grief journey, a friend, and member of our group, dropped off a book written by a parent who had lost a child. I am a professional librarian and had always been an avid reader but at that time I could not concentrate on the novels I used to enjoy reading. I found that I couldn’t stop reading that book and afterward looked for others like it to read. The books I found most helpful were written by other parents and just like our sharing circles, they reach us because the authors truly understand the journey we are all on. I hope you may find some of the books in our collection helpful on your own grief journey. Ingrid Draayer, mother of Jesse Barrie, 1981-2009
o A phone and e-mail support network so that someone is available to support bereaved parents between meetings. o An annual balloon release event commemorating the child that takes place on a weekend each autumn. o A worldwide Candle Lighting annually on the second Sunday in December. in every time zone, candles are lit in honour of all children who have died. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lit in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light that encircles the globe…. That their light may always shine. Always in our hearts. Why involve yourself with this organization? Many professionals including thanatologists believe that it is beneficial for bereaved parents to talk about their loss, to recall the events surrounding it, to express their feelings and to share their memories. It is thought that if emotions are held back and feelings not expressed, the progress towards positive reconciliation of grief is delayed or prevented. For these reasons we encourage bereaved parents to talk about what happened, to express their feelings and to acknowledge the reality of their loss. We are not counsellors or therapists and we do not give advice or counseling. We are people who have journeyed, in varying degrees, the same road you are now traveling. PAMPHLETS FROM THE NATIONAL OFFICE ARE PROVIDED UNDER THE "PHOTOS" TAB.
