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The Forgotten Grievers
It’s been said that siblings are the forgotten ones. That friends and family members focus on their parents, and oftentimes do not even think to ask how they are doing, whether they need a shoulder to cry on. Too often, siblings are expected to step up and help out when their parents cannot cope. Too often, they are expected to ignore their feelings and to push forward. Siblings often feel invisible at home, overwhelmed by their parent’s grief and sadness, and they feel hurt that their friends avoid talking to them about their brother or sister’s death. They feel isolated and different.
Siblings who come to The Compassionate Friends RVA will learn that they are not alone and that what they are feeling is normal. In addition to our monthly meetings, TCF national has online support specifically for siblings, and the TCF national Facebook page has closed Facebook groups just for siblings. There are also Facebook groups specific to different causes of death (suicide, substance abuse, illness, drunk/impaired driver, homicide, etc.). These online support groups can be a lifeline to siblings, another place to share and learn that they are not alone.
Grief is a journey with no roadmap, but we can help each other learn how to navigate it.
Modern Loss: A candid conversation about grief, blog for young adults.
Siblings Walking Together
We are the surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.
We are brought together by the deaths of our brothers and sisters.
Open your hearts to us, but have patience with us.
Sometimes we will need the support of our friends.
At other times we need our families to be there.
Sometimes we must walk alone, taking our memories with us, continuing to become the individuals we want to be.
We cannot be our dead brother or sister; however, a special part of them lives on with us.
When our brothers and sisters died, our lives changed.
We are living a life very different from what we envisioned, and we feel the responsibility to be strong even when we feel weak.
Yet we can go on because we understand better than many others the value of family and the precious gift of life.
Our goal is not to be the forgotten mourners that we sometimes are, but to walk together to face our tomorrows as surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.
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Sibling Zoom Meetings Siblings age 18 and over are welome at our monthly meetings. While our chapter does not have a siblings-only meeting, several other chapters do have sibling-only Zoom meetings which are open to siblings nationwide. If you have lost a sibling - or if you are a parent who has surviving children - sign up for the weekly newsletter to receive info about the sibling meetings. Sign up to receive the Sibling Newsletter. TCF’s Closed Facebook Groups are open 24/7/365 and provide online support. In addition to the groups for siblings listed below, there are groups specific to your loss (substance abuse, suicide, cancer, long-term illness, homicide, loss of a special needs child, loss of an infant or toddler, etc.). There is also a group for men in grief.
TCF’s Online Support Community (live chats) allows you to talk online with other bereaved siblings from across the country during the Online Support Community sessions held every week. These sessions are limited in number of participants and have trained monitors who are also siblings.
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