Community Memorial Services: A Time for Remembrance

By Calvin Crews Suncoast Hospice chaplain

Chaplain Calvin Crews

It’s that time again for Suncoast Hospice and our community to come together at our community memorial service to remember friends and family members. There’s an added bit of excitement with this service because it will be held at a local faith community, as we’ve done in the past.

Our service will be July 25 at 6 p.m. at Anona United Methodist Church, 13233 Indian Rocks Road in Largo. It’s open to everyone of all faiths. Our services were held at our community service centers in the past several years. We’re looking forward to going back out in the community. As with all of our services, it gives us another opportunity to connect with the families we’ve served and to continue the journeys with them. 

We feel that this is an important service to many in our community because we all come together to comfort one another and share memories of our deceased loved ones. Some have made our services part of their bereavement process, attending year after year. Our services provide the perfect occasions for people to acknowledge and mourn those who’ve died, regardless of when the losses occurred. 

It’s also important for our own staff and volunteers to remember the patients and others we’ve served. In the book, Tuesdays with Morrie, author Mitch Albom states, “Death takes a life not a relationship”. Our services are to help those relationships stay alive through the remembering and honoring of our loved ones.  

Our services include meaningful words, music and other rituals that can support the moment that’s shared. At this particular service we’ll be giving an inspirational stone to each of our attendees to take with them as an expression of the moment and hope of the comfort that they received during the service.

Our society often thinks a funeral or memorial service provides closure. That just isn’t true. At the end of a person’s life, the most important need is to know that his or her life mattered and that he or she will not be forgotten. Our relationships with our deceased loved ones play out in our hearts every day as we remember them. A memorial service gives us another opportunity for remembrance.

It was once stated that if our tears become our stairs and our memories our road, we’ll always be able to travel with our loved ones in this life that is left behind.

We hope you’ll join us at our service on July 25.

If you feel you need support with your grief, you can always call us at 467-7423.

Staff Learns About Spiritual Pain & Healing at Retreat

Retreat Participants

Spirituality can be a sacred piece of a person’s life, including as the end of life draws near. Several of our employees of many disciplines came together for a two–day retreat to examine the spiritual pain that some hospice patients and families face. They also explored their own spiritual experiences.

Presenters were Richard Groves, an author and co-founder of the Sacred Art of Living Center, and physicians Marlis Beir and Dean Sharpe, who work to address the spiritual pain and comfort of the patients in their practice. The staff who attended will delve further into their education through a series of small group meetings.

Valuable Learning

Richard Groves Presents

Dwight Douglass, a bereavement counselor, was impacted personally and professionally by the retreat. He felt re–energized with his beliefs and past training and gained some new insights for his bereavement care.

“Richard provided a framework and tools, which are useful in my work with our bereaved. This spiritual support will help us facilitate a safe place for our patients and families to express their sense of spirit and healing on many levels,” Dwight said.

Continued Education

Elle Wolf–Muhleck, a Suncoast Hospice Care Center Mid-Pinellas chaplain, helped organize the program and will lead one of the small groups. She’s glad to expose so many of our staff to this area and connect it to her spiritual care.

“It’s not just a training it’s a personal growth commitment. It validates my core beliefs and healing work and enables me to support others in their healing. I look forward to working with my group to continue the learning and make this come alive,” Elle said.

Are you thinking about a profession in hospice care? Check out our job listings.