FiGS Discuss Death & Dying

One of the greatest challenges to a parent or to members of a church family is supporting a child through the process of grief.  A recent  FiGS event addressed this difficult topic.  The event was a presentation by Peggy Weber, Parish Nurse Coordinator at St. Mary’s Hospital.  For many years Weber has been facilitating Kids Can Cope, groups for children coping with major personal or family changes due to serious illness or death.  Any change means some kind of loss, said Weber.  Children need the support of family and trusted adults outside the family to work through the complicated emotions associated with such losses.  
Much of Weber’s work involves helping children find ways to express those emotions.  Sharing anecdotes and examples of the artwork made by children in her groups, Weber emphasized the need to prepare children for major changes as much as possible by discussing them frankly.  “I always ask them what their worst fear is,” said Weber, pointing out that while our impulse may be to try to shield children by withholding information, that children use their imaginations to fill in what they do not know, often imagining something far more frightening than the reality.  When a loved one is near death she said, children can appreciate the idea that the remaining time they have with that person is a gift.  “We have the gift of time,” said Weber.  “Now how do we want to use it?”  ~ Lyn Macgregor