What to Expect At A Compassionate Friends Meeting

You Need Not Walk Alone

Find hope, help, support, understanding, and compassion at a Tampa Bay Compassionate Friends Meeting

Join us the First Thursday of each month from 7 – 8:30 pm at the Showmen’s Museum located at

6938 Riverview Drive, Riverview, Florida 33578

If you have any questions please contact Debbie Rivera, Chapter Leader for the Compassionate Friends of Tampa Bay Area

What to Expect At A Compassionate Friends Meeting? You will find others that are going through grieving the loss of a child too. Yes, the circumstances are different for each of us and yet we comfort, support, understand, share, gain strength, have hope, and get through this devastating and life-altering loss together. We are here for one another. Our Tampa Bay Compassionate Friends Chapter began in 2012 after the loss of my son Patrick in 2011. I felt a tremendous need to heal through helping others have a safe place to share their own grief journey with others that truly understand.

With more than 660 chapters of The Compassionate Friends across the United States, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Guam, there are a number of different chapter meeting formats. Chapter leaders and steering committees work together to determine how the sessions can best be structured to help both the newly bereaved and returning members in their area.

Meetings are held once a month at our chapter for two hours in the evening on the First Thursday of every month. Our meetings should not be confused with counseling sessions. Participants are all bereaved parents (guardians), adult siblings, or grandparents who are dealing with the death of a child. We have been where you are and we continue to return to offer friendship and support through the natural grieving process after a child dies.

Chapter meetings often consist of two parts, a sharing session plus a program related to bereavement after the death of a child. Our chapter is currently working on adding some special sub-groups for siblings, suicide, addiction, miscarriage and pre-birth and to help the most newly bereaved just joining us.

You will hear from others whose child died from pre-birth to adulthood. Some who attend will be young and some will be old. Some will be women and some will be men. Some will come alone while others will come as couples.

Sometimes there will be a guest speaker who will talk about a bereavement issue. Sometimes a bereavement topic of interest will be chosen to discuss. Our chapter is also planning to offer special programs too.

If you’re shy or unable to talk about your loss, you do not have to share at all, although you will have the opportunity to do so. No one is forced to talk about his or her loss. Much can be gained by listening. Some people believe it’s harder to talk in front of strangers about something so intimate as the loss of a child, but because everyone else at the meeting has had a similar experience, they understand much of what you are feeling and you will eventually reach a comfort level with those you meet. A point to always keep in mind is that what is said in the meeting stays in the meeting. The privacy of our members is important. We’re all there to work toward healing.

It may be hard for you to believe, but occasionally you will hear laughter. This is not a dishonor to any child. Rather it is often a reaction to a wonderful memory of a child or something we have learned or experienced and can share with each other.

When you come to a meeting of The Compassionate Friends, we ask that you attend at least three meetings before you decide if the group is for you. For many, the first meeting may also be the first time they’ve been able to talk about what has happened to them and to their family and to their child. This can bring a lot of emotion to the forefront, emotion which seems to disappear over the months as you talk about your loss. Don’t worry, we’ll bring the tissues. Tears are a natural release for a grieving person and is a way to help cleanse the body of toxins.

More than 17,000 bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents in need of support attend TCF meetings in the U.S. every month. You will find it is so very true what we often say, “You Need Not Walk Alone!”

Join us the First Thursday of each month from 7 – 8:30 pm

You need not walk alone  . . .