Today was our very first Bereavement Cafe, which we held at Mansfield and District Crematorium. I've been home a couple of hours now and I really wanted to write something about this morning, but couldn't think how to start this blog. So I'll start by simply saying Thank you!
The idea for the Bereavmenr cafe came after I met with my fellow celebrants, Cheryl Cooper, Drew Baxter and Wayne Swiffen for a coffee and a catch-up. We started talking about what happened after we'd delivered a service for a family and what help and support was out there for people who might just want to meet up with people who are going through something similar.
Before we knew it, we were sat with Nada and Haylee at the crematorium and they were offering to help and support us in putting on a Bereavement Cafe.
When we started advertising it, we had a number of people getting in touch to ask for more information or saying they'd like to come along.
PoFfles Coffee and Cake Emporium offered to provide us with cakes, which we are truly grateful for, I even managed to get them there safely this mornign without eating them or dropping them!
This morning as we got everything set up, I think we all a bit nervous that no one would come along and it would just be us sat having a coffee.
We need not have worried. From 10am, people started to make their way in, we made everyone a brew, made sure they had a cake and just started chatting.
Everyone had a story to tell, everyone wanted to listen, to emphathise, to sympathise and just share experiences. There were tears, there was laughter and new friendships made. It was quite humbling to witness people who'd never met before sharing their experiences, and offer support to each other.
There was a whole range of people there, from people who'd just lost someone, to others who were a year or longer into their grief journey. People had lost parents, partners, children, and there was a range of ages.
We were asked multiple times if we'd be doing another and the simple answer is yes. We are aiming to hold them the first Monday of the month, in the same place and we will look at what other help and support we can offer people.
I want to say thank you to everyone who came along, thank you for being brave enough to take those first steps, to share your experiences and support others.
Thank you to Nada and Haylee and all the staff at Mansfield Crematorium for your incredible support and helping make this a reality.
And thank you to my fellow celebrants Cheryl, Drew and Wayne, we make quite the team!
We are hoping the next bereavement cafe will be on Monday 5th August, but we will confirm that asap.
PS - I was hoping to take lots of photos and I ended up talking too much (no change there), but I did manage to get a picture of our delicious cakes, my photo really doesn't do them justice!
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