The Compassionate Friends/Kirkland WA

11/22/2025

11/22/2025

Reminder: Our monthly TCF Coffee meeting is tomorrow, Saturday 22nd of November at 10am in Starbucks, in QFC, at 11224 NE 124th St, Kirkland, WA 98034. Please come and join us.

Coffee with friends was excellent again last month. The holidays are on my mind this month. We are less than a week away from Thanksgiving, the first of the major US holidays. I read an article this week by Anna Whiston-Donaldson, where she wrote about her family’s first Thanksgiving gathering after their son Jack drowned in a flash flood. Anna’s memoir Rare Bird is one of my favorite grief memoirs. A prolific blogger, I followed Anna’s story because her son died just a few months before my daughter. I came to know her family and cried yesterday when I read about their first Thanksgiving after Jack died.

See https://modernloss.com/first-thanksgiving/?fbclid=IwY2xjawOOMhdleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFBMmYwZ0NkRTNremNpNjB5c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHsat5Bb5XTjkam3jde0cyRc7Nfb714rzO_DWk3RdAvjks2d5y9Fy8fxtaQ4V_aem_l5aEGSlmsd8Q9x2QErkEjQ

If you need a book to help you over the holidays Dr Gloria & Dr Heidi Horsely wrote “Open to Hope: Inspirational Stories for Handling the Holidays After Loss”. See the quote below from Mitch Carmody.

In our bereaved dads’ meeting yesterday, we spoke about the webinar by Dr Bob Baugher about Coping with Guilt during Bereavement. Very helpful to me. I must have listened to this about a dozen times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGohMcvQjAQ

Finally, please do not forget about our TCF Candle Lighting on Sunday December 14th. Mark your calendar. It gives us a moment of respite during the difficulty of the holiday season. Come along tomorrow and tell us, over a cup of coffee, how you are going to remember your child over the holidays.

“When you have suffered the physical loss of someone in your life, the holidays, especially Christmas, can be extremely difficult and challenging. When that loss is a child, it can change how you experience and process the holidays forever.” - Mitch Carmody
- Dr. Gloria Horsley and Dr Heidi Horsely: Open to Hope: Inspirational Stories for Handling the Holidays After Loss

11/20/2025

Reminder: Our monthly Bereaved Moms’ and Bereaved Dads’ in-person meetings, are tomorrow night, Thursday night, 20th November at 7pm. Please come and join us. We are meeting at Evergreen Hospice. The address is Evergreen Hospice, 12822 124th Ln NE, Kirkland, WA 98034

"When we have unresolved grief, we often live with overwhelming rage."
- Edith Eger: The Gift: 14 Lessons to Save Your Life

11/13/2025

Reminder: Our monthly Chapter meeting is tomorrow night, Thursday November 13th, at 7pm at Evergreen Hospice, 12822 NE 124th Lane NE, Kirkland, WA 98034. Please come along and join us in person.

“Even with creative practices and rituals like this and all of the meetings with other bereaved parents and my grief counselor, the darkness grew darker. At about the 15-month mark, I had a counseling session with my grief therapist where I shared that I did not feel like I could go on."
— Shari O'Loughlin: Life from the Ashes: Finding Hope After Loss.

10/25/2025

Reminder: Our monthly TCF Coffee meeting is tomorrow, Saturday 25th of October at 10am in Starbucks, in QFC, at 11224 NE 124th St, Kirkland, WA 98034. Please come and join us.

"What greater grief can there be for mortals than to see their children dead. Euripides said that."
- Joan Didion: Blue Nights: A Memoir

10/23/2025

Reminder: Our monthly Bereaved Moms’ and Bereaved Dads’ in-person meetings, are tonight, Thursday night, 23rd October at 7pm. Please come and join us. We are meeting at Evergreen Hospice. The address is Evergreen Hospice, 12822 124th Ln NE, Kirkland, WA 98034

"What greater grief can there be for mortals than to see their children dead. Euripides said that."
- Joan Didion: Blue Nights: A Memoir

10/09/2025

Reminder: Our monthly Chapter meeting is tonight, Thursday night this week, October 9th, at 7pm at Evergreen Hospice, 12822 NE 124th Lane NE, Kirkland, WA 98034. Please come along and join us in person.

“Greta was the victim of an accident. An accident happened. I have to learn to state this grievously unacceptable information over and over again. In every interaction, I am the messenger for a rip in the universe, a talisman that carries the message 'all will not be well' with me into every new room. I am the reminder of the most unwelcome message in human history: Children - yours, mine - they don't necessarily live."

— Jayson Greene: Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir of Life and Love After Unimaginable Loss.

09/27/2025

Reminder: Our monthly TCF Coffee meeting is tomorrow, Saturday 27rd of September at 10am in Starbucks, in QFC, at 11224 NE 124th St, Kirkland, WA 98034. Please come and join us.

“Life is like air turbulence. You have to have faith that there is calmer air ahead”
- Richard Pryor: Warriors of Life: Conquering Grief and Battling Your Way Back to Happiness

09/26/2025

Reminder: Our monthly Bereaved Moms’ and Bereaved Dads’ in-person meetings, are tonight, Thursday night, 25th September at 7pm. Please come and join us. We are meeting at Evergreen Hospice. The address is Evergreen Hospice, 12822 124th Ln NE, Kirkland, WA 98034

"We may think we can control our grief, our terror, or our shame by remaining silent, but naming offers the possibility of a different kind of control."
- Bessel Van Der Kolk: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

09/11/2025

Reminder: Our monthly Chapter meeting is tonight, Thursday September 11th, at 7pm at Evergreen Hospice, 12822 NE 124th Lane NE, Kirkland, WA 98034. Please come along and join us in person.

“When a child dies it makes us question everything we know about the world.”
- Amelia Ireland: The Seven O’Clock Club

08/28/2025

Reminder: Our monthly Bereaved Moms’ and Bereaved Dads’ in-person meetings, are Thursday night, 28th August at 7pm. Please come and join us. We are meeting at Evergreen Hospice. The address is Evergreen Hospice, 12822 124th Ln NE, Kirkland, WA 98034

"Greta was the victim of an accident. An Accident happened. I have to learn to state this grievously unacceptable information over and over again. In every interaction, I am the messenger for a rip in the universe, a talisman that carries the message 'All will not be well' with me into every room. I am the reminder of the most unwelcome message in human history: Children-yours, mine - they don't necessarily live."
- Jayson Greene: Once More We Saw Stars: A Memoir of Life and Love After Unimaginable Loss

08/23/2025

Reminder: Our monthly TCF Coffee meeting is tomorrow, Saturday 23rd of August at 10am in Starbucks, in QFC, at 11224 NE 124th St, Kirkland, WA 98034. Please come and join us.

“When a child dies it makes us question everything we know about the world.”
- Amelia Ireland: The Seven O’Clock Club