North Shore-Boston Chapter
The Compassionate Friends
North Shore - Boston Chapter
Grief Support after the Death of a Child
This website is dedicated to the memory of all of our children.
The Mission of The Compassionate Friends is to assist families toward the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child of any age and to provide information to help others be supportive.
We are a national, nonprofit, self-help organization that offers friendship, understanding and hope to bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings. Our meetings are open to all family members who are grieving the death of a child, grandchild or sibling. There is no religious affiliation and no dues or fees.
WE NEED NOT WALK ALONE
WE ARE THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS
CHAPTER MEETINGS
Since April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our chapter began holding bi-monthly online video meetings.
As of January 2021, we added one in-person meeting per month to our meeting schedule.
The in-person meetings are held on the fourth Wednesday of each month. The online video meetings are held on the first Monday and the third Wednesday of each month. If the first Monday of the month happens to fall on a holiday, that meeting will be re-scheduled to the first Tuesday of the month.
Sibling online video meetings are held on the third Wednesday of each month.
More detailed information about our upcoming chapter meetings can be found below in the Chapter Meeting Updates column.
An email invitation will be sent to members prior to each meeting. You may also request an invitation by emailing tcfnoshoreconnect@gmail.com to let us know that you would like to participate.
In addition to our chapter meetings, other support options are listed below:
1) TCF Live Chats: The National TCF website offers scheduled Live Chat sessions on different days and with different topics. The details can be found here: National TCF Live Chat Schedule
2) Private Facebook Groups: TCF offers several private Facebook groups facilitated by bereaved parents, grandparents or siblings. They can be accessed here: TCF Private Facebook Groups
3) TCF North Shore-Boston Facebook Page: Our chapter has its own Facebook page that is active with members from our chapter. You can access it here: TCF North Shore-Boston Facebook Page
CHAPTER UPDATES
Since April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our chapter stopped holding in-person meetings and began holding bi-monthly online video meetings. Starting in January 2021, we added one in-person meeting per month to our meeting schedule.
In recent months, our in-person meetings have received greater attendance than our online video meetings. Because of this change, we have decided to hold two in-person meetings and one online video meeting each month, starting in June 2024.
The in-person meetings will be held on the first Monday and third Wednesday of each month. The online video meetings will be held on the 4th Wednesday of each month. If any of the meeting dates conflicts with a holiday, the meeting will be rescheduled.
Sibling online video meetings will continue to be held on the third Wednesday of each month.
More detailed information about our upcoming chapter meetings can be found below in the chapter Meeting Updates column.
An email invitation will be sent to members prior to each meeting. You may also request an invitation by emailing tcfnoshoreconnect@gmail.com to let us know that you would like to participate.
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We are currently in need of help with managing our chapter website. If anybody has interest in helping out, please contact our Website Manager via email: tcfnoshoreweb@gmail.com
Also, in order to help cover our chapter website fees, we invite our members to sponsor our website for 1 month in memory of their children, grandchildren or siblings. The monthly website sponsor donation is $25 per member and the maximum number of sponsors per month is 2. Sponsors may post a message to their children, grandchildren or siblings; this message will be displayed in the Website Sponsor column on the Home page of our website and will also appear in our chapter newsletter.
If you would like to sponsor our chapter website, please contact our Website Manager via email: tcfnoshoreweb@gmail.com
Website sponsor signup sheets are also available at our in-person meetings.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT OPTIONS
In addition to our chapter meetings, other support options are listed below:
1) TCF Live Chats
The National TCF website offers scheduled Live Chat sessions on different days and with different topics. The details can be found here:
National TCF Live Chat Schedule
2) Private Facebook Groups
TCF offers several private Facebook groups facilitated by bereaved parents, grandparents or siblings. They can be accessed here:
3) TCF North Shore-Boston
Facebook Page
Our chapter has its own Facebook page that is active with members from our chapter. You can access it here:
Website Sponsor Messages
Our website is sponsored this November in loving memory of:
GEORGE SILVA
Dear George,
We are grateful for all our memories
and every moment we shared.
We will continue to celebrate
your beautiful life on earth.
We love and miss you always.
Love,
Mom and Bob,
Gustavo and Aimee and Family
JAMES KIRIAKOS
JIMMY YOU ARE SO MISSED
You filled the world with
Special joy and happiness untold.
You always had a sunny way
and a loving heart of gold.
You made life so much brighter,
just by being thoughtful, too....
And saying kind and helpful things
was typical of you.
That's why it's hard to face the world
and know you won't be there,
Lighting up life so warmly
with your smile beyond compare.
The memories you've left behind
grow sweeter day by day
You are so missed, Jimmy,
more than any words can say.
Love, Mom, Dad, Brother, Family & Friends
Event Updates
See information below on upcoming TCF events:
CANDLELIGHT REMEMBRANCE SERVICE
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2024
6:30 PM
Aldersgate United Methodist Church
235 Park Street
North Reading, MA
Click here for additional information:
Website Sponsor Messages
Our website is sponsored this October
in loving memory of:
KORY ADAM OUELLETTE
10/22/02 - 08/27/23
Happy 22nd birthday in heaven.
We miss and love you
more than words can express.
You live on in our hearts and minds.
We carry the wonderful memories
of you that we all shared together
each and every day
until we meet again.
We love you so much Kory ❤️,
Love,
Mom, Dad, Kyle and Ryan..
Maya and Simba too!
TIMOTHY GLENDINNING
A Birthday Wish for Timothy
October 27th will be 28 years since that magical day we first met. That night your mom and I were going to a Halloween Costume Party across the street from our house. We were dressed as vampires, with capes; your mom liked the cape because it hid your baby-bump. The one neighbor didn’t believe mom was pregnant until she opened up her cape, and there you were. The party ended, we walked across the street, we walked in the front door and you made a splash right there. About 14 hours later, you and I met and it was magical, you were perfect.
We had 20 birthdays together, and each time we had a cake with candles, and birthday wishes as you blew out the candles. You might’ve gotten some of those wishes, and maybe more of them, not so much? I always wanted to give you more, but as the years ticked by you would say, having us together was what counted; I thought that was your gift to us from you.
This birthday, we will still have a cake, candles and as we blow out your candles and make a wish...it will be your wish for us…having us together. This will be our 8th birthday without you blowing out your candles, but making your wish will carry on for many years. One day we will all gather at your table, and once again we will all be together again, just as you wished to be.
We miss you, and love you, especially on this day, I think your wish is my wish for everyone.
Love Mom, Dad and Katherine
Meeting Updates
Our October 2024 chapter meetings will be held on:
Monday - 11/4/24 - 7:00 PM
In-Person Meeting
(E-mail invitation to follow)
You may also contact
to request an invitation
Topic: Holiday Gatherings and
Family Vacations
Wednesday - 11/20/24
In-Person Meeting - 7:00 PM
(E-mail invitation to follow)
You may also contact
to request an invitation
Topic: Open Sharing Session
-and-
Sibling Online Video Meeting
7:30 PM
(E-mail invitation to follow)
You may also contact Aimeeb15@gmail.com
if you would like to participate
Topic: Remaking Holiday Traditions
Wednesday - 11/27/24
Online Video Meeting - 7:00 PM
Please contact
if you would like to attend
Topic: Facing the Holidays
Click here for our 2024 schedule:
In the event of inclement weather, necessitating the closing of North Reading public schools, our chaper meeting will also be canceled.
Event Updates
See information below on upcoming TCF events:
CANDLELIGHT REMEMBRANCE SERVICE
SUNDAY
12/8/24
6:30 PM
Aldersgate United Methodist Church
235 Park Street
No. Reading, MA
Click here for additional information:
Website Sponsor Messages
Our website is sponsored this February in loving memory of:
GALE McLAUGHLIN
February 24th you would have been 55 in 2024.
I still look at that picture of you
at 17 months and guess I will
always wonder what our life
would have been like had you lived!
We look at your picture,
though not with sadness,
but with the joy of knowing
that you would be happy
how our life has gone on these years.
We have three wonderful
sons and their wives
and five beautiful granddaughters!
We are truly blessed!
So yes, we are joyful,
but will always miss you, Gale,
and always wonder if you were here,
what life would be like,
one of those unanswered questions for sure!
Love, Mom and Dad
JASON M. DIXEY
There are some who bring
a light so great to the world,
that even after they have gone,
the light remains.
You are so loved
and missed every day.
Keep sending rainbows.
Love, Mom, Dad,
Adam, Peyton and Riley
Chapter Meeting Updates
Our February 2024 chapter meetings
will be held on:
Monday, 2/5/24 - 7:00 PM
Online Video Meeting
(Email invitation to follow)
You may also contact tcfnoshoreconnect@gmail.com
to request an invitation
Topic: Open Sharing Session
Wednesday - 2/21/24 - 7:00 PM
Online Video Meeting
(Email invitation to follow)
You may also contact tcfnoshoreconnect@gmail.com
to request an invitation
Topic: Open Sharing Session
-and-
Sibling Online Video Meeting - 7:30 PM
(Email invitation to follow)
You may also contact Aimeeb15@gmail.com
if you would like to participate
Topic: Finding Out Your Sibling Died
Wednesday - 2/28/24 - 7:00 PM
In-Person Meeting
Please contact tcfnoshoreconnect@gmail.com
if you would like to attend
Topic: Coping With Everyday Life
Click here for our 2024 schedule:
In the event of inclement weather, necessitating the closing of
North Reading public schools, our in-person chapter meetings
will also be canceled.
Website Sponsor Messages
Our website is sponsored this October in
loving memory of:
KAYLA ANNE BELL
YOU DON’T JUST LOSE SOMEONE ONCE
You lose them over and over, sometimes many times a day.
When the loss, momentarily forgotten, creeps up, and attacks you from behind.
Fresh waves of grief as the realization hits home, they are gone.
Again.
You don’t just lose someone once, you lose them every time you
open your eyes to a new dawn, and as you awaken, so does your memory,
so does the jolting bolt of lightning that rips into your heart, they are gone.
Again.
Losing someone is a journey, not a one-off.
There is no end to the loss, there is only a learned skill on
how to stay afloat, when it washes over.
Be kind to those who are sailing this stormy sea,
they have a journey ahead of them, and a daily shock to the system
each time they realize, they are gone,
Again.
You don’t just lose someone once, you lose them every day, for a lifetime.
( By Donna Ashworth)
We love you and miss you, Kayla
Love, Mom, Dad & Kieran
TIMOTHY GLENDINNING
Gifts From Timothy
October 27th is your 27th Birthday, I have given you models over the years with your birth date on it, but since you left us 6 years ago last month, I want to thank you for several of the gifts you have given all of us. Your gifts have certainly kept our connection of love for you as strong as ever for evermore.
Here are a few of the Gifts From Timothy:
The day after you left us, in our back yard from the woods, the male bucks came out to meet and somehow have their own send off for you. The feeling/energy in the air made the hairs on my arms stand-up. Weeks later while up in your room, there was Besa’s painting she did for you years earlier of the ‘Buck in the Forest’, it looked exactly like that evening in our back yard, A Gift From Timothy.
One year later, Mom and I were up having dinner with Katherine in Portland, and it was the first anniversary of your angel date, a very tough day. As we drove away at the traffic light was a red convertible sports car. As it pulled away from the light, the license plate read: ‘For Tim’, another Gift From Timothy.
Many of your friends stopped by after losing you, and Collin told us of your last tagging (your spray painting on the overpass by MASCO). To drive by and see your artwork, as though you were just here making your final mark for us to find, A Gift From Timothy.
We feel you in the woods, at the beach, any time nature’s beauty takes our breath away, you are here with us. The sunsets, the morning sun rises, the still moments after a snow fall in winter, the autumn colors, it’s all a Gift From Timothy.
I always smile and say thank you, no need to question how it happened or any concerns why, it’s all a Gift From Timothy.
We appreciate these gifts, please keep them coming, wherever and whenever. We miss you and love you every single moment evermore.
Love, Mom, Dad and Katherine
Meeting Updates
Our November 2023 chapter meetings will be held on:
Monday - 12/4/23
Online Video Meeting - 7:00 PM
(E-mail invitation to follow)
You may also contact
to request an invitation
Topic: Open Sharing Session
Wednesday - 11/15/23
Online Video Meeting - 7:00 PM
(E-mail invitation to follow)
You may also contact
to request an invitation
Topic: Open Sharing Session
-and-
Sibling Online Video Meeting - 7:30 PM
(E-mail invitation to follow)
You may also contact
if you would like to participate
Topic: Self Care After a Loss
Wednesday - 12/27/23
In-Person Meeting - 7:00 PM
Please contact
if you would like to attend
Topic: Open Sharing Session
Click here for our 2023 schedule:
In the event of inclement weather, necessitating the closing of North Reading public schools, our chapter meeting will also be canceled.