"When you close your eyes and remember, don't forget that your sibling rests yet in you, in your heart and in your thoughts, in everything you do. They will never leave you alone. You have a listener at your beck and call. What a gift!"   ~ From a Sibling

When a child has died, siblings are often referred to as "the forgotten mourners."  While parents usually receive most of the support of relatives and friends, siblings generally receive litte - often being asked, "How are your parents doing?"  The Compassionate Friends is an organization that is not just for bereaved parents.  It's also for bereaved siblings and grandparents.  Some chapters have sibling subgroups (which welcome siblings age 14 and up), while adult siblings are welcome at all TCF chapter meetings.  Contact your local chapter to find out their policies on siblings attending meetings. 

Feel free to contact the National TCF office at 877-969-0010 to request a free of charge, customized bereavement packet. 

Various means of support can be found on The Compassionate Friends national website:

- Online Support Community (live chats) allows you to talk to other bereaved siblings across the country during the Online Support Commuity sessions, which are held each week.  These sessions have a limited number of participants and have trained monitors who are also bereaved siblings.

- Two brochures made specifically for bereaved siblings:

When A Brother or Sister Dies

Adults Grieving the Death of a Sibling

- We Need Not Walk Alone, the national magazine of The Comassionate Friends, which includes stories for siblings, as well as the popular sibling column, "Ask Dr. Heidi."

- TCF chapters that provide sibling support (use Chapter Locator)

(Formerly the Sibling Credo)

We are the surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.
We are brought together by the deaths of our brothers and sisters.
Open your hearts to us, but have patience with us.
Sometimes we will need the support of our friends.
At other times we need our families to be there.
Sometimes we must walk alone, taking our memories with us,
continuing to become the individuals we want to be.
We cannot be our dead brother or sister;
however, a special part of them lives on with us.
When our brothers and sisters died, our lives changed.
We are living a life very different from what we envisioned,
and we feel the responsibility to be strong even when we feel weak.
Yet we can go on because we understand better than many others
the value of family and the precious gift of life.
Our goal is not to be the forgotten mourners that we sometimes are,
but to walk together to face our tomorrows as surviving siblings of
The Compassionate Friends.

©The Compassionate Friends