By Diana Graettinger | Sun City
Living in a senior community helps define us through the countless new friendships we embrace and absorb into our lives, a sense of expanding rings of connections; but it also brings with it a myriad mystical fog of sadness that clings to our spiritual self when one of those new friends passes away. I have thought a lot about that lately as new friends, people who have briefly touched my life and enlarged it with their presence, have left.
And that grief is ever present whether knowing only a few neighbors in Sun City or connections we make at the various social and sports clubs here in this city of retirees.
Which led me to reflect on how we grieve and where we grieve and opened a pressure cask of memories of favorite stories I shared with my nephews; remember, Winnie the Pooh who said, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” And although during our elder years we have embraced many losses, there still are no instructions or guidelines for the impact that departure has on our lives.
Every day, living in a senior or retirement community, is saying goodbye to someone; it is a consequence of the life we choose.
But there are support units in Sun City offering a comforting hand to help us cross that long path of sadness not just for the new friends we have lost, but also family members and loved ones.
One such group is at the Church of the Palms, 14808 N. Bowell Blvd., who, along with the Rev. Shea Darian, director of Doing Grief Community Healing Project and an ordained minister in the Southwest Conference of the United Church of Christ, offer links of support not just talking about grief, but through care services that resonate with our lives.
Doing Grief Community Healing Project provides spiritual enrichment and healing through the arts programs, grief education, and spiritual care services that function to promote holistic healing (mind-body-spirit) for those suffering grief due to loss, death, broken relationships, illness, injury or any life change or circumstance that causes grief.
All programs are open to anyone experiencing grief related to death or other losses. The nonprofit group is funded solely on donations from attendees and supporters. For more information, DoingGrief.com or call 602-315-8480.
