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Loss & Grief Support 2
January 16, 2008 |
Mark Geisler is a social worker and patient advocate at Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center. He supervises a support group
for grieving parents who have lost adult children. “The loss of any loved one is particularly horrible. When we lose
a child, particularly one who’s grown it’s just so unnatural and different. The
depth of loss, the unfairness of
it is just so profound.” Those are some of the
reasons why Mark started the support group. Members meet once a week to talk about
their experiences. Mark says, “The feelings of being alone have got to be awful.
It’s always good to link up and be willing to share your story so that you can help
other people. The way we keep our loved one’s memories alive is to talk about them.”
Two years ago Helene Lagudi lost her only son, Frankie. He was 23 years old. “You
have to talk about him, so he lives on. I tell his story and the more you tell it
the more you heal,” she says. Six weeks after Frankie’s death, Helene attended her
first support group meeting. She’s been coming every week for 23 months. “Everything
that you thought is only happening to you, you realize look at this, there’s a whole
room. So you get this comfort feeling that this is a safe haven to go to.” She says
that in that special circle of friends, her range of emotions are not only understood,
but respected. “Regardless if it was a bad week and we happened to slip backwards
or it’s just hitting us hard, we can come here and cry or laugh and everybody’s
going to understand.” There are a variety of support groups offered, free of charge,
in Lee County. To find a group that’s right for you, log onto, www.leememorial.org. |
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