For many, the holiday season is hard to navigate, especially if you’re grieving the loss of someone dear. You’re supposed to feel merry and festive, but you don’t, and it seems that at every turn, there’s another sad reminder that your loved one is gone.
Sometimes, the only mantra to get through the holiday season is Samuel Beckett’s line: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”
Coast Hospice volunteers understand what a difficult time this can be and, for the 26th year, they are inviting folks to write love notes to remember those who have died, and to hang their notes on the Hospice trees set up in Gibsons, Sechelt and Pender Harbour until Dec. 16.
“We’re here to listen to you, to sit with you in your grief, to companion with you in the dark, to answer your questions and to honour your love notes,” said Hospice president Denis Fafard.
Throughout the year, trained hospice volunteers provide compassionate end-of-life and bereavement support for all residents on the Sunshine Coast. “We provide one-to-one companioning, bereavement groups, respite to caregivers, two hospice rooms, and a comprehensive library on death and bereavement,” Fafard said.
Stop by the Coast Hospice table at Sunnycrest Mall in Gibsons, Nov. 20 to Dec. 2, Trail Bay Centre in Sechelt, Dec. 4 to 16, the Madeira Park Community Centre, Dec. 2 and outside the Madeira Park IGA on Dec. 9, weather permitting.
Lights of Life is for people of all ages, faiths and cultures, and it’s free.
On Jan. 1 at 2 p.m., join the Lighting the Memories ceremony at Mission Point Park in Davis Bay, where all the love notes will be burned in a ceremonial fire on the beach and your wishes sent skyward.
Money donated to the Sunshine Coast Hospice Society stays on the Coast to provide hospice and bereavement care for all those who live here.
– Submitted by Bernadette Richards
