St. Luke Home Health & Hospice has gone a step further for area residents who are experiencing grief by sponsoring a monthly support group.
The debut meeting was in January in the sixth-floor auditorium at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center. Guest speaker was Kym Garraway, an author, artist and Christian inspirational speaker.
Garraway has had her share of loss — the death of her grandmother, who also was an artist, was particularly hard on her, as were the deaths of two good friends.
But Garraway said she learned to draw on the natural world as a form of healing.
“It helps connect with the God of the universe,” she said.
Garraway said people who lose loved ones should feel the freedom to grieve.
“Scripture encourages you to grieve,” she said. “The word of God will strengthen you more than you know.”
She talked about how she drew close to nature — literally 19 feet high in a tree stand, where birds gathered around her.
“I learned from the hummingbirds, and the chickadee, which is the most joyful bird I’ve ever seen in my life,” Garraway said.
The crowd for the first support group meeting was fairly sparse; it was a very stormy day. But St. Luke has plans to host a grief meeting every month with varied speakers.
At 4 p.m. on Feb. 18, Dr. Larry LeBlanc, pastor of First Baptist Church of Summit, will be the guest speaker.
LeBlanc will address several topics — grief as a gift and time to mourn, the healthy expression of emotions, dealing with anger and guilt in the grief process and learning to live again.
The meeting is open to all people dealing with any type of grief, whether it’s from death, divorce or other life-changing event.
Michelle McGuffee, director of St. Luke, said the hospice started in Monticello and now has five branch offices.
“We had grief seminars in the Monticello area for more than six months until we branched out into other areas,” McGuffee said. “We want people to be able to be a part of a group of people who are going through similar situations. We just want to have a support system for them. Sometimes meeting someone who is going through a similar situation as you can help even more than a professional.”
McGuffee said the goal is for people to find true support for grief situations and to make lifelong contacts.
Grief has five stages — denial, bargaining, anger, depression and acceptance, and it’s never a universal process.
“People go through the stages of grief in different order,” McGuffee said. “We would love for people to get out and come no matter what kind of grief you have.”
Not everyone will want to speak, she said, “but they can still hear what other people say. If you don’t feel like talking that’s fine. Just knowing that what you’re feeling is normal can be a big help to others.”
All programs are free. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to Tina Brumfield at 250-4283.
