The booklet ‘Christmas following a young sudden cardiac death‘, features 14 short chapters from men and women telling their personal experiences of how they deal with the “festive season” when all they want to do is hide away, ignore the fun and celebrations and treat it as any other day.
The bereavement support team at CRY knows that bereaved families often find the most solace, support and guidance from others who have been through a similar experience. With this in mind, this new booklet includes stories from bereaved mums, dads, siblings and partners. They share their own experiences and how they deal with key days through the Christmas period, from the different arrangements they have tried on Christmas Day to how they approach New Year’s Eve.
“Preparing for Christmas is a prospect that haunts every family having to cope with the tragedy of a sudden cardiac death of a fit and healthy young person,” CRY Founder Alison Cox said when we released the booklet. “Finding ways to confront and deal with this massive public event requires enormous courage. Finding the motivation to survive it is a huge challenge for most of our bereaved families. Whether father, mother, sibling, partner or loving friend, it produces a maelstrom of emotions that can dominate the last quarter of every year – and for the rest of their lives.”
You can read the booklet online, or order a printed copy of the booklet. You can also find every other booklet in CRY’s “Grief Series” on our website here.
Our support services have also expanded to Facebook in recent years. We now have private Facebook groups where people (aged 18 and over) can connect and share their experiences with others who have been affected by a young sudden cardiac death. Again, as people who contact CRY often want to talk to others who have gone through a similar experience, we have different groups specifically for bereaved mums, bereaved dads, bereaved siblings and bereaved partners, as well as a ‘Family and Friends’ group which can be joined by anyone who has lost a young person to a sudden cardiac death.
If you would like to join one of CRY’s Facebook groups, you can complete a request to join the group of your choice here.
