A Place That Warms the Heart

It is important to recognize there are three tasks which assist in the healing process:
GRIEVING: We provide support services in a caring and compassionate environment to allow each person too grieve in his or her own way. Trained facilitators listen and guide the participants on their journeys.
UNDERSTANDING: We assist children, adolescents, and adults in discovering ways to understand and resolve issues faced by losing a loved one. One way we do this is by focusing on education and improved communication between family members and friends.
COMMEMORATING: Remembrance is an important part of grief. Our annual Tree of Lights Ceremony held in December is a beautiful memorial service that allows one to memorialize loved ones during a very important family holiday.

A Place That Warms the Heart is a small non-profit, our mission is of paramount importance because inevitably everyone will lose a loved one and need support as they journey through the healing process. We provide a loving, safe place where people are allowed and encouraged to share their feelings in grief support groups facilitated by trained professionals. The twice a year groups offered are Children's, Parents, and Significant Others. There is no charge to participate and the groups last for six weeks. A Place That Warms the Heart facilitators offer participants a place to share and listen with other participants' personal stories of love, life, and loss which are important in easing their heartache. Grief is universal in that everyone will suffer the loss of a loved one; we recognize grief is personal and everyone grieves in their own way.
Children do not grieve like adults. Mothers grieve differently than fathers. The loss of a mate is different from the loss of a child. The death of a friend can be overwhelming. A Place That Warms the Heart understands that when someone loses a loved one, life is altered and the survivors often need support in healing their hearts. Participants become aware of their own heartaches and therefore better understand the heartaches of others, and are able to offer warm hearts of support to help one another.

Testimonials

On July 26, 2005 my world as I knew it came to an end. My Firstborn Son Chad passed away just three weeks after my Mom passed away from Alzheimer's. I can't even begin to describe how dark my life became when I hear the words, "Your Son has passed away." It was like a part of me had been torn away. I had no idea how to go on without him even though I had another son & daughter left on this earth to love. My niece told me about A Place That Warms The Heart. She told me where they met & when. God gave me the courage & strength to go that first Tuesday evening & that's when several ladies came into our lives & helped us start on a different road to our new lives for healing. I wish I could tell everything that happened in the following four years that we went to A Place That Warms The Heart but I can't. I only can describe it as joining a new Family that no parent wants to belong to, but needs it when they've lost a child. In a lot of ways you become closer to the members of this New Family than you can ever be to your real family. Leigh Peregoy helped guide us through our journey of our new normal so to speak as our Grief Counselor. Oh my gosh there's so much that I want to say about her, Rhonda, & Sherry, how they helped us get through the darkest time of our lives. They brought us together with other Parents that were going through something that no one should have to go through & that was having to bury their child. It's not normal, it shouldn't happen. But it does & they formed a safe place for us to come & together deal with the raw pain, the emptiness, the hopelessness that we all felt, by being there for us, letting us share our stories if we wanted, crying when we needed to, taught us that laughing was OK by remembering funny things that our babies did. We got to know each other's children & learned how to keep their memories alive & how to feel them still with us even though we could no longer see them. I know in my heart that I could never have gotten through those dark days when my life seemed so hopeless & full of pain. They taught me to take Baby Steps & to hit the brick walls & go around them. I could go in & on but the main thing is I'm ok, I've learned through the guidance & love of A Place That Warms The Heart that I can survive & life does go on. It's just a different road than I was on when Chad was in my life. God Bless Rhonda, Leigh, Sherry & Kay Asher who will never be forgotten for her contribution to A Place That Warms The Heart. I like to think that Kay is in Heaven with our Precious Guardian Angels waiting for us all. Linda S.