The Compassionate Friends, Olympia Chapter

Tonight was my support group, my first meeting. It's called The Compassionate Friends, and there are chapters all over the country. It's a group for those who have experienced the loss of a child in their life... whether miscarriage, stillborn, child death, or death of a sibling (which there was a young man there with his mom, who lost a sister/daughter, which I thought was awesome they came together). I was a little upset at the possibility of not going due to car troubles, but it resolved itself and I made it to Olympia with extra time to get a small sandwich and a drink before the group. There was about 15 people total, and right from walking in the front door everyone was very polite, inviting, understanding. A woman sitting next to me thought I was in school, which I thought was kind of funny, and was funny to see her face when I said I wasn't. The group was pretty diverse, and it made me nervous for the first 10-15 minutes being obviously the youngest one. The majority of the people there are over 40, the closest to my age was probably only like 32 or 35. We started (after the leader welcoming me and saying a little about the group and this chapter) with the leader reading The Compassionate Friends credo, which made me cry from the very moment he started reading. Took all of 4 minutes into the meeting for me to start crying. We then went around the room and briefly (or longly) told our story of who we lost. There were all kind of stories: suicide, drug overdose, illness, and my own story of miscarriage. We went around again to add any other details or to talk in general, and people commented and discussed certain things. We then all stood up and held hands, and said the name of our loved one and an "I love you" or "I miss you", and the meeting was over. Several of the women came to hug me or talk to me after the meeting, and even one of the older men came over to give me a hug. Three women asked if I was coming back, and I told them of course. One of the other men watched me walk to my car as I left, which I thought was nice. Even though I cried pretty much the entire time, especially when I was speaking (guess I'm not so over the telling people about it like I thought), it was a positive experience, and I definitely want to go to the next meeting in June.