When a child has died, siblings are often referred to as “the forgotten mourners”. While parents usually receive much support, siblings usually receive little – often being asked “How are your parents doing?” TCFQ is an organisation that is not just for bereaved parents, it is also for bereaved siblings (and grandparents).
Support Meetings
For those who have experienced the loss of a brother or sister, we welcome siblings to our support meetings, coffee mornings and other events.
Brochures for Bereaved Siblings
We provide the following brochures for siblings, free on request to bereaved siblings,
- When a Brother or Sister Dies
- Adults Grieving the Death of a Sibling
- A Sibling’s Grief For Young Adults
- Plus more……
Siblings Telephone Contact
We also welcome all siblings to contact our 24hr support line for those who just want someone who understands to listen.
See our Contact Us page for details.
Newsletters
Our newsletter has sibling-focused articles and stories from time-to-time.
Excerpts of our newsletters can be downloaded from our Newsletters page.
We would really love sibling-focused contributions to our newsletter. If you have any poems, verses, articles, something you have written or anything to recommend or contribute please email to: admin@tcfqld.org.au
Listed below are some of the siblings-related articles and verses submitted by members in memory of a loved one, plus extracts from sibling brochures available on request. Download it in pdf format.
- Sibling Grief – By Dr. Dennis Klass
- Dealing With Grief: A Sibling Viewpoint – By Rick Edler
- A Sibling’s Journey of Grief – By Jacqueline Cairns
- A Boat – By Jacqueline Cairns
- Ask Dr Paulson
- Time – By Jacqueline Cairns
- My Big Brother was so good to me – By Connie Danson
- Birthday Wish – By Shannon Ausman
- Cabie – By Zachary Dimmich
- Letter From Heaven – By Belinda Troth
- Little Angel – By Aliesha Riggs
- On the Anniversary of Three Years Without You
- Time – By Julann Pontician
- To My Brother
Siblings Walking Together
We are the surviving siblings of The Compassionate Friends.
We are brought together by the deaths of our brothers and sisters.
Open your hearts to us, but have patience with us.
Sometimes we will need the support of our friends.
At other times we need our families to be there.
Sometimes we must walk alone, taking our memories with us,
continuing to become the individuals we want to be.
We cannot be our dead brother or sister;
however, a special part of them lives on with us.
When our brothers and sisters died, our lives changed.
We are living a life very different from what we envisioned,
and we feel the responsibility to be strong even when we feel weak.
Yet we can go on because we understand better than many others
the value of family and the precious gift of life.
Our goal is not to be the forgotten mourners that we sometimes are,
but to walk together to face our tomorrows as surviving siblings of
The Compassionate Friends.
