When a child has died, siblings are often referred to as “the forgotten mourners.” While parents usually receive most of the support of relatives and friends, siblings generally receive little—often being asked “How are your parents doing?” Sibling loss turns your world upside down, and it is as unique as each sibling relationship. The Compassionate Friends is an organization that is not just for bereaved parents. It’s also for bereaved siblings.
Siblings (over 16) are always more than welcome at our monthly meetings. We feel that bereaved siblings and bereaved parents can learn from and support each other. At the same time, we're very much aware that the grief of siblings is different from the grief of parents and grandparents (or at least it often is), and we think it is important that siblings have an opportunity to meet separately with other siblings.
The TCF Siblings of New England group provides that space. It meets via Zoom on the third Wednesday of each month, at 7:30 PM. To receive more information about the group, as well as the Zoom link for the meetings, email Carolann Pichnarcik, the co-leader of the group, at co-leader@tcfncm.org.
To be added to the regular TCF of Boston email list so that you hear about all of our meetings, resources, and events, email us at tcfofboston@gmail.com. We invite you to contact our National Office at 877-969-0010 and request a customized sibling bereavement packet assembled just for you. These TCF brochures created just for siblings may also be helpful.
We are the surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.
We are the surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.
We are brought together by the deaths of our brothers and sisters.
Open your hearts to us, but have patience with us.
Sometimes we will need the support of our friends.
At other times we need our families to be there.
Sometimes we must walk alone, taking our memories with us,
continuing to become the individuals we want to be.
We cannot be our dead brother or sister;
however, a special part of them lives on with us.
When our brothers and sisters died, our lives changed.
We are living a life very different from what we envisioned,
and we feel the responsibility to be strong even when we feel weak.
Yet we can go on because we understand better than many others
the value of family and the precious gift of life.
Our goal is not to be the forgotten mourners that we sometimes are,
but to walk together to face our tomorrows as surviving siblings of
The Compassionate Friends.
