PORTSMOUTH — The Bereavement group at SOMC Hospice held a session on Tuesday from in the Gibson building on the East Campus of SOMC.
Susan Goins, SOMC Hospice Bereavement Coordinator, said the “Memory Making” sessions serve as a source of healing for the participants.
“We are having a Bereavement support group, and it is actually a workshop, where all of our participants have lost a loved in the community and they were invited to attend the session,” Goins said. “We are actually having three sessions, and people will be making a picture frame for their loved ones, and it will be their favorite picture that they can set up and be able to see. It is a memory making project, and that’s kind of the name four group. March is Memory Making Month, and we try to help people remember the good things about their loved one instead of the last days of their dying. This helps them to start on the grieving process and to heal. We started the Memory Making groups about four years ago.”
Every March the group some type of scrapbook, memory box, homemade mini albums, or shadow boxes.
“It makes a big difference. I’ve had people call me and say that the groups have really helped them,” Goins said. “We go right from the memory making groups to Picking Up the Pieces, which is an educational group where we have a sharing time where people will come and if they feel like talking about their loved one they can, and sometimes its too fresh and they can’t, and they’ll pass. I’ve even had those people come back and say what they heard someone say in the group has helped them more than trying to talk they feel tearful.”
Goins said she does individual and group grief counseling five to seven days each week.
Cinnamon Wellington, owner of “Happy Pot Pottery,” assisted the group in the on how to make the ceramic picture frame, and how to use the materials.
Brenda Stiltner, SOMC Hospice Volunteer, said the sessions serve as a way for her to give back to the community.
“Tonight is the Memory Making session of our spring Bereavement Program. These sessions give me an opportunity to give back to the community by volunteering. I have been where those in this group have been. I needed some help just like they do and now I get to help by volunteering,” Stiltner said.
“Tonight, we are painting pottery picture frames to display pictures of ours loved ones who have passed away. Happy Pot, from West Portsmouth, has been more than willing to help with this Memory Making session,” Stiltner said.
Scioto County Job and Family Services operate a fundraiser to help to fund the Happy Pot session, according to Stiltner.
“The sessions are completely free. For this session, Job and Family Services held fundraisers for three months to cover the cost of tonight’s Happy Pot session. We are very thankful for their help with the SOMC Hospice Bereavement Program,” Stiltner said.
SOMC Hospice offers community grief support: Fall Picking Up the Pieces, Surviving the Holidays, Valentine Reunion Dinner, Making Memories Scrapbooking, Spring Picking Up the Pieces, and Be Fit While You Grieve.
The next meeting for the Memory Making Group is March 8. For more information, contact Susan Goins at 740-356-2676.
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