Friday, August 31, 2007

Interfaith Memorial Service

We would like to extend an invitation to attend our annual Interfaith Memorial Service, held on Monday, September 17, 2007 at 7:30 p.m. at Presbyterian Church of Newton, High Street, New Jersey.  This memorial service is open to anyone in the community who wishes to commemorate loved ones who have died.  It will be an evening to remember, to gain strength and comfort.  There will be clergy from the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths.  We will have songs, readings, and a candle-lighting ceremony. 

You  may send a loved one's name to be included in our brochure and to be read during the service.  As your loved one's name is read, you may come up to light a candle in remembrance of them.  It is a beautiful and honoring ceremony. 

If you would like to attend, and/or have a loved one's name included in the ceremony, please send the following to the Joseph T. Quinlan Bereavement Center, c/o Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice, 99 Sparta Avenue, Newton, New Jersey 07860, Attention:  Diana Sebzda:

Your name, address and telephone number.  Your loved one's name, their relationship to you and a phonetic spelling for pronunciation, if necessary.  If you wish to send a donation, that would be greatly appreciated and acknowledged. 

You may also call in this information at 800-882-1117 or e-mail at Bereavement@karenannquinlanhospice.org.

 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How long does grief take, before you can get back to some kind of normal?


Dani

Anonymous said...

Hi Dani,  I wish I had an easy answer to your question, but it really depends on a lot of different things.  In an earlier posting, I discussed the "variables in grief."  That is a HUGE determinate of how one person can grieve differently/or longer, than another person.  Things like, what kind of relationship did you have with your loved one?  How long has it been since they died?  How did they die?  Do you have other stressors in your life?  Finances?  Lack of supports?  Spiritual crisis?

The list goes on, but these are just a few to give you an idea on where your variables are.  Sometimes if we feel like we are grieivng too long, it may be complicated grief.   There is a posting for this too, but basically it means that a person is grieving for a prolonged period of time.  That doesn't mean to say that we won't always be sad about our loved one or miss them, but complicated grief implies an intense grieving.  There are many reasons why one would have complicated grief as well.  

Please feel free to call me at the toll free number provided and we can discuss some of these in more detail and I can try to help you on a more personal level.  I would also be happy to mail you some handouts on grief that you might find helpful.

Thanks, Diana