Help with Grief During the Holidays

Dec. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- The holiday season, traditionally a time to enjoy family gatherings, can be especially difficult for individuals and families who have experienced the death of someone they love.  

Lisa Bartoszek, Hospice at Home, Director of Bereavement and Lory’s Place, shares these words during the holidays, “the holidays will never again be exactly the same when one who is loved is no longer there this year.  With the death of a special person, things change.  That does not mean, however, that joy will never again be able to be experienced.  The heart remembers and love is forever.”

Hospices are experts in grief and can be a welcome source of support to someone who has lost a loved one through death.  Hospice at Home’s grief support programs are free of charge and are available to anyone in the community, even if the person who died was not a hospice patient. In addition, Hospice at Home is privileged to offer the community a safe haven for grief healing at Lory’s Place, a grief healing and education center which offers peer support groups to children and adults of all ages, also at no charge.

For those mourning the death of someone important to them, here are a few special ways to acknowledge that loss during this holiday season:  

Change some holiday traditions; keep some of the old ones and create new ones.

Develop a special ritual that remembers the person who is gone.  

Light a candle daily and spend a few minutes in quiet reflection.

Hang an ornament that represents your loved one.

Set a place at the table for your missing loved one.

Say a special prayer in memory of the relationship you are missing.

Give a gift your loved one would have liked to someone in a nursing home.

Hospice at Home is the non-profit community hospice focusing on the patient and family regardless of the patients’ diagnosis, treatment choices, or ability to pay. It provides quality care to people adjusting to living with a serious illness, to people facing death, to people anticipating the death of a loved one, or to people healing their grief after the death of a loved one. Hospice at Home places an emphasis on the emotional, social, and spiritual needs of those who need care and those receiving support services. Serving Berrien, Cass, Van Buren, and Allegan Counties, the care is coordinated by a team of physicians, nurses, hospice aides, social workers, spiritual care counselors, bereavement coordinators, and trained volunteers. Extending this care, Lory’s Place, a bereavement and education center that builds hope and strength for every grieving family, is available to anyone in Southwest Michigan or Northern Indiana.

For more information or to receive special support for your grief during the holiday season, call Hospice at Home at 1-800-717-3811 or Lory’s Place at 1-800-717-3812; or go to www.hospiceathomecares.org.

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Hospice at Home is your non-profit hospice provider for SW Michigan. Offering comfort, dignity, and compassion to the terminally ill through a holistic, non-curative, approach to care, focused on enhancing the lives of patients for their remaining days.