Jacintas's Smile – Sibling Bereavement Support

HomeKatie2021-04-22T17:34:53+00:00

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Programme of Upcoming Free Events

Free creative workshops for children and adults whom have lost a sibling above the age of 12 months.

Magic and mayhem with RTE`s AbraKIDabra’s captivating and spell-bounding Joe Daly

Saturday 28^th of March

Parent`s information evening. In partnership with Anam Cara.

End of March TBC.

Creating Kindness in Mindfulness with Louise Shanagher.

Saturday 24^th of March (4-14 year olds) and Sunday 25^th March (15-18+)

Loss through a pandemic – for the siblings we lost during Covid.

Saturday 23^rd of May (18+)

Recharge you – Yoga therapy with Dearbhla.

Saturday June 12^th (3 – 12 year olds) and Sunday 13^th(13 – 25 year olds)

Adventure day in Wildlands, Galway.

Saturday August 28^th (6-25 year olds). Pending Government restrictions.

Click here to read more and sign up

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Our next Sibling Bereavement event 👏🏼✨👏

Our next Sibling Bereavement event 👏🏼✨👏🏼💙❤️

This is for young adults and upwards to all ages.

Unfortunately, we know that there are so many people right now that are feeling the immense loss of their sibling dying during this pandemic 😔

The lack of physical support has been harrowing and the lack of emotional support through familiar faces and fear of being close to someone with a simple intimate hug has been soul destroying to so many. 🖤

We wish to acknowledge this.

We wish to bring many of us together that have lost a sibling within the last year that have had to bury a brother or sister and grieve during the ongoing pandemic restrictions. 🔓

When someone dies we are told to stick to routine, to get out and meet friends, to call on others for support or to look for professional help. 🔗

None of the above have been available to be implemented by grievers in the last year.

So, for this reason we want to hold you in a space of reflection and respect and offer a sense of belonging in the craziness and emptiness if sibling loss during restrictions 👩🏼‍🤝‍👩🏻👨🏻‍🤝‍👨🏽

There will be music, warmth and compassion and a place to share our collective loss and hopes ✨

As always please do share, you never know who may need to see this 🍃

👌🏻Spaces are limited, so ensure to sign up soon.

We are grateful to be funded by the Healthy Ireland Fund and supported by the Department of Health and the Department of Children and youth affairs.

#siblingloss #bereaved #childhoodtrauma #childhoodbereavement #grief #siblinggrief #siblingbereavement #childloss #familygrief #family #bereavementsupport #death #grieving #loss #hopes #soulwork #growth #pandemic #ireland #irishsupport #support

During the week I asked my mum, “if you die wh

During the week I asked my mum,

“if you die what would you come back as to show me you are around?”

(Yes we have these conversations)

Her answer was a “pissy bed” 😂😂😂

For those of you not living in the country she means a Dandelion ☺️🌻🦁

At first I laughed and then I remembered 🌈

Dandelions are the only plants that represent the Sun, Moon and Stars 🌞🌝✨

The yellow head is the sun, the white is the moon and when you blow it, the feathers are the stars 💛

She said she would be the tallest one in the garden ☺️

Sending love to all those mothers standing tall and representing the earth and the circle of life.

May we know they are near even when they are not here with us 🌸

Marian ❤️

#grief #loss #hope #bereaved #beauty #earth #sunmoonstars #grieving #mothers #signs #motherloss

An evening spent speaking with parents that have l

An evening spent speaking with parents that have lost a child ✨

We are honoured @anam_cara.ie that you have brought us into your sacred space and allowed us to be present in your members sadness and hopes 🌈

I actually really miss doing this work. I love presenting and speaking about my passion which is sibling bereavement and especially childhood grief 💓

We have previously worked with many organisations sharing our messages of remembering children in their losses, acknowledge them and offering them plenty of TLC 😌

Zoom really is amazing how we can transport ourselves into the living rooms of peoples homes where we can meet them where they are at in their rawness and vulnerability.

I’m looking forward to respresenting children and loss in the events we have lined up in the future through schools, colleges, govt meetings and medical and mental health associations.

I feel proud of what our family have achieved and of how much our talks and information can help to change and empower the healing process for young children in Ireland 🇮🇪

Love, light and gentle compassion, always ❤️

#childloss #siblingloss #hope #love #siblinggrief #grief #bereaved #childhood #loss #childrensloss

We are absolutely honoured and so incredibly proud

We are absolutely honoured and so incredibly proud to be the beneficiaries of this beautiful card 💓

Layla Jane is a 9 year old gorgeous soul from Tipperary. Sadly she lost her daddy Kevin when she was four. She set up a card business during lockdown and has been thinking a lot of those that are missing someone.

She collects feathers and believes “When feathers appear, angels are near”. ✨

She has designed this card and along with her mother Laurena @heart.andsole and brother Callum they decided that as they are experiencing the the emotions that grief entails that they would like to help other children in their grief journey and so they chose us here at Jacinta’s Smile to be the the beneficiaries 💓☺️

They know how important it is that children are acknowledged in their losses and how difficult it can be to navigate at such a tender age.

This family is a beautiful unit of hope, gratitude, compassion, empathy and pure utter love. 💖

Laura from @pickledpompom has graciously agreed to assist in all of this. Her card are stunning and you can purchase Layla Jane’s card on the @pickledpompom website.

This card is Universal 🌍 and has the words “I wish I had words...l” which is really quite profound for a young lady to know this phrase.

Inside is blank for your own message so this leaves it open to so many circumstances of all different types of loss.

It’s like a more beautiful and empathetic version of Thinking of you.

So please do purchase. They are €4 each with at least €3.50 going towards us here at Jacinta’s Smile.

Shipping to anywhere so friends around the world to come in on the action 💁‍♀️

We honestly are so so proud of this family. 🥰❤️

Let us know if you purchase so we can share the love and creation of this amazing little lady 💖

#love #light #hope #grief #beteavementsupport #childrensgrief #childloss #siblingloss #parentalloss #beatifulminds #loss #bereaved

I remember just after Fintan died I seen a few peo

I remember just after Fintan died I seen a few people at different times crossing the street or pretending they didn’t see me, my stomach would drop.

I get it, it’s awkward.

Sometimes the best thing to do is look at us and know it’s ok to just say “I have no words”.

Or give us
a knowing look.

We know, our compounding losses are difficult to understand so don’t worry.

We don’t expect you to fix this. You can’t. But you can acknowledge us.

#childloss #siblingloss #grief #bereaved #bereavement #support #charity #siblingsupport #loss #hope #death #surviving #grieving #griefsucks #childrensgrief #childgrief #acknowledge #sayhello

Along with the nation I was watching @officialtomm

Along with the nation I was watching @officialtommedian last night.

And of course as someone who has experienced a lot of death I’ve always been open to speaking about it and intrigued so I loved watching @bridinmusic and her dad David McGowan.

It brought me back to our losses of our three siblings Declan, Fintan and Jacinta.

Our funeral director James was a good friend of ours. He is the local publican and for those living in a small village like ours will appreciate how close knit a community is especially when a young person dies.

James helped us bury Jacinta then just 15 months later he exhumed Declan from Leixlip and buried him with Jacinta in Roscommon, then one week later he buried Fintan.

Sometimes we joke as a family saying the poor man didn’t know what he was getting himself in for when he got to know our family 🙈

Jacinta was a regular in the local pub and usually the first one dancing 💃🏼 and the last to go home so it’s fair to say she got to know James very well. They had great respect for eachother.

When she died I remember him coming to the house. Even as professional as he was I could see he was empty, he couldn’t fix us.

I will never forget the image of watching him walk out the back door. I watched him through the sitting room carrying her Ugg Boots. (We wanted her to wear them to keep warm) he carried those boots as though they were a new born baby, so gently, so purely and so purposefuly I could tell he was determined to do us and Jacinta proud as he left, his hands full but his heart broken.

We then went to choose the coffin. Myself Aishleen and Charlotte. Again he was so professional but he left the room at one point as us three were hysterical laughing at how Fucked up this is.

We stood in that room with a sense of deep intimacy that only death bring.

For Funeral directors - it is not just a job for them. It’s a calling, a feeling and a privilege that can be both beautiful and devastating 🖤

The first picture is Jacinta in her many pairs of Ugg boots and the second is in Our local just weeks before she died. 💔

#loss #grief #funeral #tommytiernan #siblingloss #childloss #hope

This is our next event for bereaved sibling 😌

This is our next event for bereaved sibling 😌

Again please do share whether you know of any children that have lost a brother or sister or not as you never know who it may reach.

All you need to do is register on our website which is linked in our bio.

This event is created and facilitated by the lovely @creativemindfulnesskids Louise Shanagher of The Mindfully Me series.

We endeavour to provide workshops for these children in which we empower them to have fun, laugh, communicate gently in a safe space and to take away little pieces that that they can add to their resilience tool box 📦

It’s about creating a sense of belonging and a feeling of being understood when it’s so hard to understand what’s going on inside for them.

Tag, share, screenshot etc. . .

We, as always, look forward to seeing our friends again and meeting new ones.

#grief #childrensgrief #siblingloss #hope #belonging #childloss #bereaved #bereavedparent #siblings #bereavement

Sometimes, this is what is meant by allowing our f

Sometimes, this is what is meant by allowing our feelings to surface.

The experience of grief really can be this raw.

Stay with it 😏

#grief #bereaved #bereavement #siblings #siblingloss #loss #hope #emotions #waves #sadness #feelings #staywithit #letitbe #grounded #floored #death #family #support

Finally!!! 🙈 Again we are not very tech savvy

Finally!!! 🙈

Again we are not very tech savvy but we got there eventually 🥰.

We had a post on international women’s day about Jacinta and asked if anyone would be interested in donating. We then were informed our donate button was not working 🧐

So this is just a post to let you know that it’s up and running again if you are feeling generous 🤩🥰

Swipe to see some of the feedback from our recent event✔️

We absolutely love what we do and honestly bringing these children together to a space where they are seeing other children that have to carry the same sadness as them is so so special.

We have been told by the therapists that attend our events that what we do in one day organically can take weeks of one on one support.

For us it’s all about that human connection and seeing their their faces light up and laugh and to know it is absolutely ok and normal to feel both broken hearted and happy all at the same time.

All emotions are accepted, always ❤️

We want these children to see others that have been there and that there is a huge possibility of living well and in this we are offering hope.

Our events are little snippets of tools that they can use along the way of which they all acquire naturally and in this, resilience is created.

We also provide subsidised one to one therapy and create awareness of sibling loss on social media.

We get these children and young adults, we are them.

#donate #siblingloss #siblinggrief #childhoodtrauma #innerchildhealing #hope

I remember being asked this all the time, especial

I remember being asked this all the time, especially as a child.

I used to be so proud of our our big family.

Then when Declan died, this question used to make me feel sick and I’d get a shock, especially as a child I didnt hold the courage to ask my parents or remaining siblings ‘what’s the answer?’

If you have siblings at home that have lost a brother or sister maybe answer this question out loud for them, explain how you would like them to answer, in simple language as they will be met with this question and believe me it’s very awkward.

As an adult It will depend on who I am speaking to, if I’m asked the question and I can’t be bothered trying to explain my situation then I say six and very quickly change the subject.

And then the guilt and the complexities rise within.

I want to speak about them, I’m so honoured to be a piece of them, I want to say their names but it means I would have to try to tell what happened so I usually stay quiet and sit with the guilt within telling me I should have spoken up and told the truth.

But if I tell the reality of my life I usually then turn into the one that is trying to make them feel ok or end up listening to them knowing how I feel because their dog died. And I have to smile gently and nod.

Ps. Dogs are amazing it’s just know what someone needs to hear when their three siblings are dead.

#siblingloss #siblingdeath #grief #siblinggrief #itscomplicated #bereaved #bereavedsibling

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