Last November, Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation Palliative Care Coordinator Jerri-Ann Froese facilitated a grief session called "Hope, Healing, and Holidays" for people who were grieving the loss of a spouse. The timing was to provide support for people going into the Christmas season.
Froese said from that session, there was a call to do something like it again, and she acknowledged the need in the Pembina Valley is huge.
"I feel like more time than before, we've had so many significant losses. There's been a lot of very tragic losses in the community. We just want to walk alongside these people and let them know they're supported. There's just been a lot of tragedy and it's a lot of heavy hearts and we just feel that it's more important than ever to give them support and where people can have a safe space to share their story."
Spiritual Care Coordinator Larry Reimer and Palliative Care Volunteer Linda Fehr will be co-facilitating this session with Froese. Froese and Reimer will be sharing their own losses and Fehr will be talking about the many "firsts" in grief that can be hard.
"This is a time when people can come together and acknowledge their losses. They've had significant losses, it’s for anyone that has had a significant loss, whether it's a parent sibling, a child, a loss of a job, maybe having to move to a new community and the losses that carry alongside that. Specifically, though, there will be a number of people that have had a social loss."
Froese noted there is no timeline on grief and no pressure to do so in this session.
"It's not for us to say one way or another. I think we also want to express that in this group too, that their grief is their grief. We just want to walk alongside them, walk them through it, but they don't have to get over it."
When asked what she would say to someone who wants to help someone who is grieving, she gave this advice.
"What I've been learning along the way is sometimes, silence. We always think that we have to have the right words or maybe we should come up with the right words. But honestly, it's often just a listening ear, a comforting shoulder to cry on, and just someone to just be present with them in that time."
Froese said there will be more opportunities like this session in 2024 and to reach out for help if you need it.