“To enhance the quality of life for bereaved adults who face the challenge of rebuilding their lives without their loved ones.” | |
A New Chapter:
Steve Brickman
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My wife, Lenora Pate, passed away from cancer on June 23, 2021. Even though I had family and friends surrounding me with their abundant love and friendship, I was devastated and lonely, feeling that I didn’t have anyone who had lost their spouse and truly understood my deep emotions and profound loss. A few months after Lenora passed, a friend recommended that I should connect with Community Grief Support (CGS) to find support, understanding, and hope. | |
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CGS threw me a lifeline, inviting me to join a grief support group comprised of men and women who had recently lost their spouses. Because of the limitations that COVID presented, we met through Zoom instead of in person. CGS helped me better understand what I was feeling and how to constructively cope with my feelings of loss and grief. And over our 10 Zoom sessions, our group came to form a truly strong bond – from a place of mutual loss and devastating pain. The grief and loss we shared brought us together, and CGS helped us find hope, healing, comfort, and strength from each other.
More than a year later, our group of both men and women who first met on Zoom, now dine together every few weeks and consider each other good friends, sharing with each other our feelings and life experiences as we all deal with our loss and recovery. I feel so blessed and am so grateful to the CGS for giving me a new lease on life with meaning and purpose which nurtures and sustains me each day as I find my way in this new chapter in my life.
Pictured:(L-R) - Carla McEwen, Mary Whitehead, Steven Brickman, Todd Fuller, Jamie Thacker, Martha Dameron. The group enjoyed at dinner at Galley & Garden that was purchased at our "Lift Your Spirits" Charity Auction in 2022.
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Administrative Director Message | | | |
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Working Puzzles
Welcome to Community Grief Support’s first e-newsletter, “Guiding Hope.” These will be bi-monthly and feature shared stories, book reviews, support group schedules, events, grief tips, and more. We welcome your suggestions, comments, and ideas. Please email me: cpsmith@communitygriefsupport.org.
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I am coming up on my one-year anniversary with Community Grief Support (CGS) – and what a year it has been. John C. Maxwell, author, speaker, and pastor is often quoted saying, "Change is inevitable. Growth is optional." Taking on the job of Administrative Director has been A LOT of exciting change and growth for both CGS and me. I am a visual person, creative and innovative, with an eye for detail. And…I absolutely love puzzles (sort of an addiction), and I liken this job to working a puzzle. | | |
Book Reviews: Spousal Loss | | | |
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Clinical Director Steve Sweatt reviews a book on spousal loss. Next issue Steve will offer a review of another type of loss.
“Seven Choices: Finding Daylight After Loss Shatters Your World” by Elizabeth Harper-Neeld, Ph.D.
Seven Choices, a text affectionately known as “the Widow’s Bible,” is used as a primary curriculum resource for our spousal-loss support group program. Dr. Harper-Neeld, a retired Texas A&M University English professor – poignantly, movingly, and with evocative prosaic style – recounts her journey of spousal loss survivorship through the various dimensions of grief experience: “the impact,” “second crisis,” “observation,” “the turn,” “reconstruction,” “working through,” and “integration.”
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Spring & Summer Support Groups | | | |
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Spousal Loss Support Groups
Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church
3736 Montrose Rd
Mountain Brook, AL 35213
Time: 5:30-7pm
Days: Wednesdays
April 19-June 21
Collat Jewish Family Services
3960 Montclair Rd
Birmingham, AL 35213
Time: 10-11:30AM
Days: Wednesdays
April 17-June 26
Asbury United Methodist Church
Room 136
6690 Cahaba Valley Rd
Birmingham, AL 35242
Time: 10:30am – 12:15pm
Days: Wednesdays
March 15-May 17
To learn more, call 205.870.8667
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Brooke Premo
CGS Spring Intern
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How has Community Grief Support, and in particular Steve Sweatt, been helpful to you?
I have loved watching Mr. Sweatt assist his clients in facing the losses they have endured while integrating their grief into a joyful life going forward. His compassionate presence and wealth of knowledge in grief, trauma, and couples therapy is a comfort to so many. He is proficient in interviewing his clients and finding just what support they need, always working to connect them with that support.
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Volunteer Facilitator Training
April 29
Edgewood Presbyterian Church
8:30AM-4PM
Lift Your Spirits
July 27
Vestavia Country Club
5:30-8PM
Suicide Awareness Conference
Thursday- Friday
August 17-18
Canterbury United Methodist Church
More Details to Come
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Volunteer Facilitator Training | | |
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Do you feel like participating in one of CGS's support groups has been helpful in your grief journey and you want to give back? Join our next Support Group Facilitator Training.
Volunteers are so important to our program. In fact, exit evaluations say that next to sharing their own stories, group members feel that our “Volunteer leaders made the most significant contribution to their experience.” Registration is required. To register call 205.870.8667 or email us at erin@communitygriefsupport.org.
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Thank You Community Partners | | | |
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In addition to individual donors, Community Grief Support is so fortunate to receive financial support from local foundations, churches, and businesses. Throughout the year, CGS submits grant applications for the work we do in our community – providing FREE grief counseling, loss-specific support groups, and community education programs. | | |
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When we receive this funding, each gift/donation is an intentional investment in Community Grief Support’s work in helping to improve the overall mental health and wellness of our community – our friends, our co-workers, our neighbors. They believe in the importance of our quiet, yet crucial work. We are grateful and humbled. Thank you!!!
For the first quarter of 2023 (as of 3.28.23), CGS has received funding from:
- Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham
- The Powell Family Fund
- Lakeside Baptist Church
- Christ the King Lutheran
- St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
- Canterbury United Methodist Church
- Vulcan Materials Company
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Bob Terry, former long-term board member and chair of CGS, has a new book out! “Struggling Toward Hope: Life After the Death of a Spouse,” shares not only the personal lessons he learned along that journey, but also practical tips for survivors as they learn to live after a loved one dies. | | |
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Jim Chomicz
Spousal Loss Survivor
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Your gift is making a BIG difference in the lives of those grieving the loss of a loved in the Greater
Birmingham community!
All Community Grief Support’s services are rendered free of charge. When you invest in CGS, you provide hope for those struggling to cope with loss.
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"Grief is not a disorder, a disease, or a sign of weakness. It is an emotional, physical, and spiritual necessity, the price you pay for love. The only cure for grief is to grieve.” — Earl Grollman | |
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Community Grief Support
205.870.8667
1119 Oxmoor Road
Birmingham, AL 35209
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