Compassion, Summer 2020

Summer 2020 - Compassion | www.tcf.org.uk 8 I want to say something about a dear TCF volunteer, Pat Bradshaw, who sadly passed away on 23rd April. Pat and her husband, David, lost one of their three sons, 19 year old Dominic, who died in a motorbike accident. 30 years ago Pat set up a TCF support group in Finchley, North London, and has run that group ever since. Pat’s group was my first contact with TCF; it was the group I wrote about in the last edition of Compassion. Pat was an incredible person, giving comfort to anyone whether newly bereaved or further down the road. There are so many people whose lives have been touched by Pat and she will be remembered by us all with such fondness. She leaves behind her husband, David, and two sons, Dave and Matthew. Thank you Pat, you were my doorway into TCF and helped me along the path of my new normal. For all of us bereaved parents and siblings, there are clearly going to be many challenges in the days, weeks and months ahead. But I want to assure you that we will continue to work on your behalf to ensure that our wonderful charity is there for you all during this time. Please stay safe and well. Andrew x (Fabian’s Dad) One of my favourite songs from my long ago youth was Joe Brown’s, ‘What a Crazy World we’re Living in’ and seems very appropriate at the moment. I’m not able to go into London, where the library resides and, like so many of us, am shut away in my own home with Netflix for company. However, before London was closed, I managed to get about 18 books home with me and since then I’ve been pretty busy with my Amazon account. We recently had a generous donation in memory of Helen Martin, whose name is inside the front covers of so many of our library books, which has added four new books to our library. I have two of them sitting here in front of me. Once more we saw Stars is a memoir by Jayson Greene whose two year old daughter was killed when a wall fell on her causing a catastrophic head injury. There’s also The Empty Room which is written by a sibling and was recommended to me at a TCF meeting in Kilburn. I’m so very pleased to have these books in our library and am very much looking forward to reading them. I’ve also been buying some books in memory of my own daughter, Claire, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, and so far have bought second copies of Tom Zuba’s Permission to Mourn: A new way to do grief and Becoming Radiant: A New way to do life. Tom Zuba is a man whose wife and two children died at different times and from different causes and amazingly he has managed to invest in life and hope, reaching out to help others. His books are very readable and inspiring and I greatly admire them. I’m proud to have my daughter’s name and photo inside these wonderful books. I’ve also bought copies of both the books reviewed in this edition of Compassion, Eggshells by Bryan Clover and Upright with Knickers On, surviving the death of a child, by Gina Claye. I’ve also bought an intriguing book by bereaved mum Elizabeth Luard called Family Life: birth, death and the whole damned thing. I won’t necessarily stop there either because I’d like some more audio books for the library. I seem to be getting News from the Catharine Pointer Memorial Library