It was Christmas morning many years ago when I was about fifteen years old. My oldest sister Beverley had gone through training as a nurse and was working at the Public General Hospital in Chatham. She had worked the midnight shift on Chirstmas Eve so we were all waiting for Al to pick her up and bring her home to celebrate Christmas with us. The girls stayed with Mom in the house to make a big breakfast and I went to the barn with Dad to do my chores. When I was done I climbed up into the hay mow and opened the door at the end of the barn where I had a birds eye view of the road. It was a brisk morning and a coat of snow left the land a sheet of white. I seen Al’s red Firebird a mile down the road as it turned the corner onto the seventh concession. There was such an excitement in my heart…Bev was almost home. Who knew that a few years later Bev would die of a brain tumor. My friends would say that I matured a lot after Bev died; but really a part of me died with her. Christmas was never the same after that.
Next Tuesday, on November 29th Dixie Peters, another one of Chatham-Kent’s angels who helps people every day through her own program called …a time to mourn… will be the guest speaker at our third free monthly seminar here at the Blenheim Community Funeral Home. A significant personal loss created a need for support & education in her own grief journey. After volunteering for several years, she became a student of Dr. Alan Wolfelt, PhD. Seven years of coordinating the Bereavement Program and seven Death & Grief Studies Certificates later, Dixie companions the bereaved through their own grief journeys.
Because Christmas is one of those times when families gather together and there are so many good memories of Christmases past, it becomes a very challenging time in a grief journey. Come join us as Dixie shares with you some thoughts on how to cope with loss during the Christmas Season and then stay for some good old fashioned Christmas baking and coffee afterwards. Give us a call at 519-676-9200 to let us know you’re coming (but if you forget to call, feel free to come anyways).
