Grief Shared is Grief Diminised

By Jerry J. Brown

The Children’s Grief Connection (formerly Camp Amanda) was born in the Fall of 2000 and the first Camp Amanda Grief Resolution Gathering was held at Camp Friendship in Annandale, Minnesota in January 2003.

I was fortunate to attend the first camp…rode horseback with Art Dingmann into Camp Courage as part of our 2007 Horseback for Hope Odyssey…and was drafted for “KITCHEN K-P (pots and pans) during last month’s conclave.

The eloquent and comprehensive prose of Coral Popowitz apprises us monthly of the plans, programs, visions and activities of the children’s program so my comments will simply describe what I have seen, heard, experienced and absorbed since camp #1.

THE KIDS:
From the innocence, love, honesty and unbridled candor of the children came a rush of emotions within me that belied the myth, “grown men should never cry.”

Yes, I cried.

I cried when seven year old Matthew showed me his photo wallet that was replete with snapshots of his dad whom had died in a construction accident two months earlier.

When the adorable Matthew learned of my Montana buffalo ranch he spent the next three hours telling his newly-found friends that “he was moving to Jerry Brown’s ‘farm’ to ride horses like he and his dad had done the week before he was killed.”

On the last day of camp, Matthew gave me one of the pictures in his ‘dad-wallet.’

I cried when I overheard two 8 year old girls sharing their feelings about how breast cancer had caused the death of their mothers and why couldn’t doctors find a cure?”

I cried when a young girl wrote on ‘the anger wall,’ “Mommy, why didn’t you quit smoking like you promised us?”

I cried when a 9 year old boy, between gut-wrenching sobs and barely audible words, revealed that his little brother had drowned in the Snake River while the family was vacationing in Wyoming.

And I wept when a brother and sister asked a counselor, “Why God had allowed their mother to die and make them feel so sad?”

THE KIDS AND THE WONDERFUL STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS:

I cried and silently cheered as I watched the bittersweet events of each gathering unfold and I shall always believe that CAMP AMANDA (a.k.a. HEARTS OF HOPE) is the quintessential achievement of Minnesota Funeral Service

A thousand accolades and 10,000 thanks to Coral, Steve, the staff, the directors, the volunteers, our omnipresent photographer KEN PETERSON and above all…to the parents and young people who have discovered HOPE and HEALING through the shining epiphanies of each journey.

So, emanating from the essence and eloquence of the verse – GOD GAVE US MEMORY SO WE WOULD HAVE ROSES IN DECEMBER – may the memories of each and every child be tender, loving and filled with happiness and hope.

Ergo, let us never forget that “grief shared is indeed grief diminished” and upon this moving and resonant truism, the CHILDRENS GRIEF CONNECTION was born and lives as a gift from those who truly care…or, as the kids would say, “GOOD GRIEF, CHARLIE BROWN!”