SIBBS Newsletter Spring 2021

SIBBS Newsletter, Spring 2021 | www.tcf.org.uk 8 We’re excited to announce that sibling online support group facilitator for bereaved siblings, Shushma Jain, has published her first book. Here, Shushma shares more information on her book – cited at as “must read for all “ by head of SEN school Chris Britten. Shushma also reveals how her grief for her brother Arvind has impacted her writing process… The book is on my daughter’s invisible disabilities and strategies I use and then why I chose to home-educate her last year officially. It talks about the education system too. It also talks about us as a family, fostering and adoption. From a grief point of view, I dedicated the book to my brother who died as he was the one who introduced me to the SEN world. I have put a photo of him in it and a photo of us as a family with him in it too. A bereaved parent Shaun, (it was his only child and we met 11 years ago through TCF) who is a second dad to me, helped me put the contents together, guided me, so asked me to elaborate, delete or add information to the particular chapters and his partner did all the technical stuff so it could be published. 50% of my customers have been bereaved parents, 30% bereaved siblings and the feedback I got from them has been - it’s given them hope and inspiration. It’s lifted them to see how much progress my daughter has made and the love between us all (I adopted her) and they too are thinking of writing blogs or a book to channel their grief. From writing this book, it’s brought out the writer in me again; I stopped when my brother Arvind died. The last time I wrote was a journal leading up to his death end afterwards. I am blogging on taboo subjects that the media have talked about such as racism, periods, comfort eating and how it’s linked to my brother’s death and just recently poems. I am writing one on my grief as my brother’s birthday approaches. TCF sibling volunteer Shushma shares her writing process