TCF News, Issue 107 Summer 2021

Summer 2021 - TCF Newsletter | www.tcf.org.uk 3 “Thank you TCF for organising this amazing event via Zoom. There were over 200 people on the call which sounds a bit much in a way but certainly was not. The event worked like a dream. Each of the speakers spoke movingly about their own experiences and contributions to the book. Gina held it all together in her own quiet way. Audience members made extensive and respectful use of the chat and Carolyn facilitated a sensitive Q&A. These events are so important during lockdown. Personally I ammissing my Thursday afternoons with TCF friends. Being together virtually is the next best thing and any contact with other bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings reminds us that we are not alone. I am so looking forward to reading Gina’s second book. The title in itself makes me realise that we are actually all superheroes whether we wear our knickers, or indeed boxers, on the inside or the outside of our tights. Thank you so much TCF for keeping going in these hard times. We need you.” Nicki “This evening...was so inspiring. It really was TCF at its best - bereaved parents and siblings sharing honestly the way their grief had affected them and how, with TCF help, they have found ways of living with their loss. All the speakers were brilliant, and all had a different experience but a similar pattern of grief - and all had survived and were able to offer their words of comfort and hope. (Our) immediate reaction was that "professionals" could learn a great deal from that hour and a half. The empathy, love, and concern that was so evident will have surely lifted all who watched and will have given so much hope to those who continue to feel in despair.” Adrian & Carol Upright With Knickers On Surviving the Death of a Child On the evening of 15 March, The Compassionate Friends hosted a unique online event showcasing the very best of peer support. Three bereavedmums - Kelly, Anne and Jill; three dads - Terry, Andrew and Graham; and a bereaved sibling - Rachael, spoke movingly and with huge courage and honesty about what has helped them survive and find meaning and hope again after the death of their child or sibling. The event was based around Gina Claye's book, Upright with Knickers On: Surviving the Death of a Child. Gina is a bereavedmumof two children and a Compassionate Friends trustee and volunteer. In her book she shares with us through prose and verse how she has survived her losses. Gina also provides an opportunity for other bereaved parents and siblings to share the variety of ways in which they have approached their grief and learned to survive the loss of their beloved child or sibling and particularly how they have found meaning, purpose and hope again. At this online event, our seven contributors to Gina's book shared with us something of what they wrote at that time and then reflected on how they feel now about what they wrote then and whether their grief has stayed the same or has changed. Each shared what has helped them to get through, to survive and to go on in a positive, meaningful way. This book and others by Gina Claye are available to buy at tcf.org.uk/shop or to borrow from the TCF library at tcf.org.uk/library What you said...