March 20, 2008 issue
Support Group Uses Crafts to Deal With Loss:
Grief Quilt Complete
Story by Corinne Saunders
A group of women in Watauga County deal with loss with help from their friends and some unique crafts.
A recently completed grief quilt, crafted in memory of loved ones, hangs on a wall at the High Country Health Care Hospice.
“We’ve been working on that [quilt] for almost a year,” said former Hospice Bereavement Coordinator Lisa Courtney. “Everyone took their own block in memory of a loved one and Judy Hawks put it together—sewed it for us.”
The quilt will hang in the Jones House this November, Courtney said. The group will make another quilt or add to this one in the near future, she added.
Every Wednesday, a support group called Good Grief meets at the Hospice office. From 10:00 to 11:45 a.m., the group uses crafts of all kinds to remember lost loved ones. From 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., they share a lunch break, typically going out to lunch together.
At lunch, the group members during discuss various grief-related topics. Going out to eat together each week is something the women look forward to, Courtney said.
“Gail Gross was instrumental in getting it off the ground,” Courtney said of the Creative Memories program—using crafts as a way to cope with grief.
In addition to the grief quilt, the crafts include scrapbooking, memory boxes and yarn “fits” that participants can throw to release the anger that often accompanies the death of a loved one. The group also makes blankets and fits for the 50 patients currently receiving Hospice services.
Good Grief is a free support group that is open to the community, and participants are welcome to come for as long as they want, Courtney said. The weekly average is 10 participants who are all in different stages of dealing with grief, she added.
“Some have been coming for up to a year; one is new today,” Courtney said. “We incorporate them as they come.”
Jenna Johnston replaced Courtney as the bereavement coordinator on Monday.
“I started [working at High Country Hospice] in January as an internship,” Johnston said. “Then I got hired, and starting Monday I will be full time.”
High Country Hospice is a nonprofit organization serving Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany counties by offering one-on-one grief counseling, Camp Sunshine, support for families who have lost loved ones, medications related to terminal illness and the services of registered nurses, a chaplain and clinical social workers, among other services.
Hospice is keeps in close contact with families who have lost a loved one for a year afterward, regularly calling and sending cards.
Caring for the community is the organization’s top priority. “If anybody needs anything, we take calls,” Johnston said.
For more information, call the High Country Health Care Hospice at 828-265-3929.
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