I remember hearing as I was growing up the phrase,”misery loves company”. I can’t help but feel now there might be some merit to that. Right from the beginning of our life change, it was the support from people who we now shared the bond of having to stay behind while one of our children went on before us, gave us the greatest comfort. They were the people who could truly say,”I know how you feel”. They were the people who knew words were not necessary and even as strangers a hug was a pillar of strength. One of our new friends once reminded me that it was our children through the years in their different activities drew us to the friends we made . They continue now to do that for us.

It was just our first month anniversary of Johanna ‘s and her grandmothers passing that we were at a support group meeting in St.John’s. From that meeting we got the courage to start the process of gathering what we now have as our support group here in this area.

It is the friendships that we’ve built from the bond we share as bereaved parents that give us strength to go on in our lives. Not only do the meetings, or gatherings I like to call them now, give us an opportunity to share openly our feelings and tears but we have each other throughout the weeks only a phone call away.

Every second Monday night at 7:30 PM we gather at one of the parents homes and share what we need to , have a cup of tea together and generally have a laugh or two. We find that we all are longing for Monday night to come when the two weeks are up.