Pekin Area Chapter
Pekin, IL 61554
Pekin Chapter E-Mail:
Pekin Chapter Voice Mail:
309-352-6000
National Website: www.compassionatefriends.org
The mission of The Compassionate Friends is to assist families in the positive resolution of grief following the death of a child and to provide information to help others be supportive.
We are a national nonprofit, self-help organization with over 600 local chapters.
The Pekin Area Chapter of The Compassionate Friends meets at 7:00 pm on the first Thursday of every month at 600 South 13th Street (basement of the Pekin Hospital).
Our meetings are open to all family members who are grieving the death of a child. There is no religious affiliation and no dues or fees. There are free brochures, helpful literature and a free monthly newsletter.
We offer a safe place for bereaved parents, grandparents and siblings to meet and talk freely about your child and your grief issues. No one is required to speak, but non-judgmental listening is expected.
We need not walk alone. We are The Compassionate Friends. We reach out to each other with love, with understanding and with hope. Our children have died at all ages and from many different causes, but our love for our children unites us.
Your pain becomes my pain just as your hope becomes my hope. We come together from all walks of life, from many different circumstances. We are a unique family because we represent many races and creeds. We are young, and we are old.
Some of us are far along in our grief, but others still feel a grief so fresh and so intensely painful that we feel helpless and see no hope. Some of us have found our faith to be a source of strength; some of us are struggling to find answers. Some of us are angry, filled with guilt or in deep depression; others radiate an inner peace.
But whatever pain we bring to this gathering of The Compassionate Friends, it is pain we will share just as we share with each other our love for our children. We are all seeking and struggling to build a future for ourselves, but we are committed to building a future together as we reach out to each other in love and share the pain as well as the joy, share the anger as well as the peace, share the faith as well as the doubts and help each other to grieve as well as to grow.
WE NEED NOT WALK ALONE
WE ARE THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS
January 29, 2012 marked the 43rd anniversary of The Compassionate Friends worldwide. You can read our story: "The Story of The Compassionate Friends.".
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We thought of you today,
But that is nothing new.
We thought of you yesterday
And will tomorrow, too.
We think of you in silence
And make no outward show,
For what it meant to lose you
Only those who love you know.
Remembering you is easy
We do it everyday.
It's the heartache of losing you
That will never go away.
~ Author unknown
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