The Cochrane Country Funeral Home is inviting members of the community to take the time to honour and remember the lives of loved ones with .
Starting at 6 p.m., guests can light candles for their loved ones, place a decorated hand ornament on their special tree, and hear messages of comfort and hope. Refreshments and snacks will also be served at the service.
Florence (Flo) Simpson, manager of Cochrane Country Funeral Home, said it is very difficult for families to deal with the loss of a loved one around the holiday season.
“We know how hard it is, and loss at the holidays is a lot,” Simpson said. “So, we invite anybody in the community who wants to come.
“This is open to the community no matter where the loss occurred, no matter when the loss happened.”
Pastor Larry Charter, a grief counsellor who will share words of comfort and hope at the service, said families have a difficult time grieving the loss of loved ones during the holiday season.
“The hardest thing they face in the Christmas season is the traditions that they’ve held as a family with their loved ones who are no longer there,” Charter said. “So, they mourn the loss of them because they’re going to miss the traditions that they’ve established over the years.
“The second one is closely related to that is the memories they have of Christmas seasons past, that will be much different this year because their loved one is gone.”
Reverend Rick Bergh, a grief counsellor and educator who will also be speaking at the service, said grief always comes back, particularly more during the holidays, as it is a time where friends and family usually come together.
“All those memories come back at those particular times, because in the past they’ve always shared some significant times together,” Bergh said.
Bergh added that memories are stored in the hippocampus of the brain, which can be tapped into at any time.
“You can’t ignore those because our senses bring those memories back very quickly,” he said. “So, when you think about the sensors in the brain, what fires off those memories, [like] smell, hear, taste, and touch, all those senses are so powerful during the holiday season.”
Anything from familiar scents and flavours of a holiday dinner, the sounds a Christmas tune, and even the sight of Christmas decorations can bring memories of a lost one back. He said it is best to address those memories rather than waiting for them to come back.
“Why not expect it to come back and honour it in some way that is honouring the person, giving them a place in your celebration, not ignoring them because they deserve to have a place,” Bergh said.
For Bergh, a beautiful part of the service is the role it plays to bring the community together.
“It’s the involvement of the community, having community who have gone through something similar,” he said. “Even if it’s a stranger, it doesn’t matter. It’s just someone that can go ‘ok, I’m not alone in this.’
“So, there’s something very special that happens when you come together and share something in common, especially the death of a loved one.”
For those looking to attend, Cochrane Country Funeral Home asks to please RSVP by Dec. 4 by calling 403-932-1039 or by emailing [email protected].
