West Central Minnesota Chapter
Dear Compassionate Friends,
I want to thank Paulette and Dorle for filling in for me in our last newsletter. I appreciated the break and their help. I also want to thank those who helped with the folding and mailing the last newsletter. Again we are entering the holiday season! I hope it will be a healing time for all of you when you remember the good times of
Meeting and Event information
Please see the Meeting Dates and Events tab for upcoming meeting information and information on upcoming fund raising events for the Angel of Hope Memorial.
Angel of Hope Memorial and New Support Group Information
Please see the Memorials/Support Groups tab for details on a new support group called Heartbeat. This group supports those who have lost a loved one through suicide.
Memorial Love Gifts Received
The Compassionate Friends is a non-profit organization. We have no local dues or fees. We function with the help of our love gifts. Love gifts are given in memory of a child by parents, siblings, grandparents, or other relatives, as well as friends and caring individuals who wish to assist with the work of TCF. These gifts enable us to continue to reach out to those who are newly bereaved in our community through brochures and newsletters. All donations are tax deductible.
Now that you’re gone, where do I go
to see your fair smile to hear your tinkling giggle to smell your damp hair after a swim to listen to your questions
to touch your gentle cheek to feel your bear hug?
Where do I go to share all my years of wisdom to find someone who’ll tell me the truth to answer the phone that won’t ring to tell you I’m sorry to know that I am loved and to pour out my love and my tears?
I shall go to the pictures that hold you forever to the books we shared to the music you taught me to love to the woods we explored as one to the memories that never fail to the innermost reaches of my heart to where we are always together.
~ Marcia Alig. TCF, Mercer, NJ In My Pocket
I have memories in my pocket they rattle just like change, my memories of you are treasures I carry wherever I go. They are stored in bits and pieces, parts of a beautiful whole, they give me comfort when I think I am alone. Yes, I have memories in my pocket, like so much other stuff I keep there. But of all the treasures I have, it’s the memories of you that are the most precious.
~ Marin Baer,
The Gift of Someone Who Listens
Those of us who have traveled a while along this path called grief, need to stop and remember that mile, the first mile of no relief.
It wasn’t the person with answers who told us of ways to deal, it wasn’t the one who talked and talked that helped us start to heal.
Think of the friends who quietly sat and held our hands in theirs the ones who let us talk and talk and hugged away our tears.
We need to always remember that more than the words we speak it’s the gift of someone who listens that most of us desperately seek.
~ Nancy Myerholts, Waterville/Toledo TCF
The Miracle of You
Who could have known the exquisite difference your brief life would make on mine?
Who cold have known a tiny baby would show me the beauty of a sunrise, or the wonder of a rainbow,
or the pain of a tear?
Who would have known that an innocent little child, would take away my fear of death and point me in the direction of Heaven?
Who could have known that you would succeed where so many others have failed?
