Annual Candle Lighting Ceremony

PLEASE   DIARISE  . . . . . . . . . .

Our  Annual  Candle Lighting  Ceremony  will be held on Tuesday 3 December, at St. Hugh’s Church, West Street, Newton Park (Up the road from Caritas) starting 19h30 – 21h00 (including tea/coffee)

Maureen Lamb, who heads the Smiley Kids Haven will be our Guest Speaker.

The Theme: “Our Child/Children Remembered during a busy Festive Season”

In lieu of a present we would have bought for our Child/Children and in honour of them, we are requesting that each family donate and bring with them to the Ceremony, White “T” Shirts, age group: 3-4; 4-5 and 5-6 years towards the children Maureen cares for.

A program, as well as candles will be provided, however, we will also be grateful if each family would  donate R20 towards this evening to cover our costs.

This is a very special time as we bring a photograph of our beloved child/children (for those who would like to), place it on a table provided in the front of the Church, near the Sanctuary and light a candle in cherished memory of them.

We are holding this Ceremony in a Church Building because of the sacredness of our remembering.  The evening will be inter-denominational, exactly what The Compassionate Friends Support Group believes in.

We are requesting ALL bereaved parents, siblings, grandparents and their relatives as well as their friends to JOIN US.

July Newsletter

My dear Friends,

I am sitting in the sun on a beautiful winter day, absorbing the warmth I need to see me through the next cold spell.  Here on the Highveld we do enjoy lovely sunny days, even though the temperature drops to freezing or below at night.  The bricks, too, absorb the sunshine and hold that warmth through a cold day or two.  It is only when the cold spell goes on that that cold penetrates our homes and our very bones.

I know I am always drawing analogies from Nature – but is it not true? That dreadful misery of early grief chills us to the marrow of our bones, and it takes a long time to thaw out.  And yet, if we allow ourselves to look for the sunshine and the warmth, we will thaw out.  One of the warming experiences is that of the friendship, understanding and sharing of our Compassionate Friends.  Through them, too, we begin to feel free to dip into our memories and to be warmed again.  For our memories are not only of the end, but of all the days of the lives of our beloved children.  So the ice-block which our hearts had become, can melt, working through our systems and out in our tears.

                       

‘Time cannot steal the treasures that we carry in our hearts,

Nor ever dim the shining thoughts our cherished past imparts.

For memories of the one we’ve loved will cast a gentle glow

To grace our days and light our paths wherever we may go’

  - This from an unknown author, found in a Parkhome, South Australia – TCF Newsletter, Dec ‘96/Jan ‘97

In the midst of sadness and misery, we can find small comforts, small joys, if we so wish.  We need to do this to carry us through the bad times.  There is a song which says, ‘Open up your hearts and let the sun shine in’.  Hope will blossom again, just as Spring bursts forth from the seemingly dead trees, and you will live again.

This is my wish for all of you who are seemingly mired in the depths of winter.

With love,

Betty Wainer – TCF – Johannesburg

Gratefully lifted from the July 1998 Jhb Newsletter