BEREAVEMENT CAN HIT HARD
Imagine that a few weeks ago you suffered the loss of a loved partner. Already life has changed enormously for you. No one to share the daily routine - no one to answer the questions that you asked each other a thousand times.
(Would you like a cup of tea? Are you warm enough? Do you want to watch Coronation Street?)
Now imagine the dark Autumn and Winter nights approaching. The time when we draw the curtains in the early evening and 'settle down'. This year you have no one in the house with you. You may ring your family, but perhaps they are miles away and anyway 'you don't like to trouble them'. Your neighbours and friends, who have all been wonderful to you, have their own things to do.
You start to think about how different things were last year when you were still together. Memories of all the happy times come flooding back. Suddenly it all becomes too much. Try as you may to be positive and 'snap out of it' a huge depression settles on you. Life becomes black and meaningless.
At these sort of times perhaps we can help - by being alongside, by giving half an hour of our time, by sharing the experience and by helping to understand the pain and the loneliness of those who grieve a partner, relation or loved friend.
Every evening of the year, including weekends, Bank Holidays, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, one of our team of trained volunteers is staffing our Helpline.
They give their time to help and comfort the bereaved. To 'lend a sympathetic ear' to anyone experiencing the sorrow and grief that may follow a death.
One of our team is at the end of a telephone every evening from 6pm - 10pm. If you know anyone who is struggling to come to terms with a bereavement - suggest they ring our helpline.
> The first step is the difficult one.
