Helping Hands

Grief support takes various forms at Hospice of Frederick County, but it is all available free of charge to anyone in the community who is grieving—regardless of how or when the death occurred.

After Linda Williams’s husband died suddenly in 2010, she attended a grief support group for widows and widowers at Hospice of Frederick County. “Being in this support group was the only time I felt I was truly in the company of people who knew exactly what I was going through,” said Linda. “Sharing our experiences made our burdens easier to carry. I think this connection with each other was the point at which many of us began to heal.”

Sharing Burdens, Beginning to Heal

Like Linda Williams, Ayesha Moore also found a safe haven at Hospice where she could share her feelings with others who understood her pain like few others could. Early in 2012, Ayesha and her husband lost their firstborn child. Later that year, while pregnant with the couple’s second child, her husband died unexpectedly. After losing this child to miscarriage, Ayesha says a combination of one-on-one grief counseling and her participation in a Hospice support group helped her begin to work through her profound feelings of grief.

“I always thought Hospice’s bereavement services were for those whose loved ones had died from cancer or after a long illness. I was surprised to learn that they offer support for everyone in the community who is grieving, regardless of the circumstances of their loss. Personally, I don’t know what I would have done without Hospice,” she says. “They didn’t overwhelm me, but somehow they gave me exactly what I needed.”

Thanks to generous community support, Hospice of Frederick County provided grief support free of charge to 757 people in 2013. If you or someone you know is grieving, call us at call 240-566-3030, or email Linda Kinna-Engel at lkinna@fmh.org, or Denise Watterson at dwatterson@fmh.org.