FMO Letters and upcoming Website
After much soul searching and finally listening to my heart, I have decided to throw all of my spare time and love into making FMO the core of my exsistance.
Teri and I have put our heads together with a few other Mom's and have come up with the idea that FMO really needs to find an outlet for exposure.
We all foresee the HUGENESS in the outcome of where we receive the exposure from whether it be television or radio, we all know that there are Mothers out there in need of each of us. They need our love and understanding more than anything and they have no way of knowing about us.
Teri and I are asking that each Mom in the FMO group take a few minutes out of their busy day and try to put into words their feelings about the "medicine" behind our group. When I say "medicine" I think I mean, what makes us work? What is it that we do that gives each of us the hope and the will to face another day without our beloved children? For me it is just knowing and having each of you to talk to plain and simple. I tried all the pills and all the head shrinks and all the books, some helped a little but none helped me become the strong woman that I am today more than having the ability to connect to each of you! I knew when I felt as though I could not go on I could write my thoughts, screaming and ranting or crying out for someone to listen to me and tell me "I could" and "You are not insane" and all the hugs and love meant the world to me.
There was no better "medicine" than each of you being there for me when I needed you the most. Someone to talk to that truly understood what was going on in my head and helping me to realize that I was not alone.
My friend Charlayne put into words for me the most profound way of unstanding what it was I wanted to share with you and with her permission I am posting a letter she wrote that I hope will inspire each of you, inspire you to write to me or to Teri in your own words and send it to either of us...we have huge plans for FMO and with your help we will succeed and in turn help thousands of grieving Mothers in the world, yes I said the world.
The first paragraph of Charlayne's letter hit me as "profound" and I believe we each hold a square to this quilt we have begun to weave together. So please share with me your personal feelings on this matter. I so look forward to hearing from each of you. The letters that you write will be forwarded to whichever outlet becomes usable for us to grow into an organization worldwide.
My email address is lillowyth@gmail.com or you can just journal your letter. For those that have not "friended" me yet please pass the word the best way you can so that we can collect hundreds of letters for this venture.
Be strong ladies, chins held high, be proud and honor all of our children.
All my love to each of you always.
Walking beside you always...
Jacqueline
Dear Dr. Phil ~~In today’s society, we have labels for everyone. Some are good and some are mean and ugly. Some are just basically used to describe a person. A child without parents, is called an orphan. Those that have lost a spouse are called a widow or widower. Yet, when you look in the dictionary, no one can label a mother that has lost a child. However, I call them, For Moms Only/FMO.Fours years ago I lost my only child, Reece. He was 21 years old when he died. He passed away in June and for the next six months of my life, it was simply a blur. I held onto hope that my Reece had simply went away for a bit or that he was playing a joke on me. I had to be strong for my parents and cover up any pain with work. I had to keep myself together or just fall apart. I went through the motions of life but without my son. I was logical and knew what I was going through in my head, just my heart didn’t follow suit.Come January, I started to feel the rubber-band (me) stretch so much that it would break. Due to my finances, I did a search on-line for some kind of grief counseling or where to go. I stumbled onto a website that was a community of various groups. They ranged from abstinence to Zellweger syndrome. One of the groups was bereavement. I created an account and joined. Much to my surprise, with all the other things this site offered, I was able to meet other moms that hat had lost children. Please understand, Dr. Phil, as qualified as you are, you just wouldn’t be someone I would believe that could truly get where I was coming from. I even thought about writing you a few times. It just appeared to me, that journaling on this website and sharing my journals with these moms, I was able to see that I was not alone. On this site, we lifted each other up, we sent hugs and love and understanding. We cheered each other along. We cried with one another, even if it was on line. We shared our anger, our depression, our lives, and ourselves. Mostly, we shared our children. We took each second, each minute, each hour, each day together. During that time, the friendships we made had us questioning was it possible to get together and meet. Somewhere, in the midst of all the grief, For Moms Only was created. Some wonderful take charge women decided we should get together and we should meet! September 2007 our first retreat was formed. Only a handful of women showed up from across the states in Charleston. I was so blessed to meet these wonderful women at that time. It is amazing what has come out of our journaling and sharing. With the women of FMO, we are allowed to take off the mask that we put on daily to face society. We can be ourselves. No one judges us when we cry or laugh out loud. I am sure that for most, medication is required just to get by. Some have used that, me included. But I have found that by journaling and talking to these women, medication is not needed very long. It is because we have each other. We know that we are not alone. We know that the person we are talking to is in the same boat as we are. Or in some cases, has been in there before. They help guide with how they handled things, how they celebrate their child’s life and death, how they made it from day to day. Of course, it isn’t a normal grief counseling. On the other hand, we aren’t normal mothers, although we try to figure out our new normalcy in life as we know it now. A life without our children. http://reece.memory-of.com/
Teri and I have put our heads together with a few other Mom's and have come up with the idea that FMO really needs to find an outlet for exposure.
We all foresee the HUGENESS in the outcome of where we receive the exposure from whether it be television or radio, we all know that there are Mothers out there in need of each of us. They need our love and understanding more than anything and they have no way of knowing about us.
Teri and I are asking that each Mom in the FMO group take a few minutes out of their busy day and try to put into words their feelings about the "medicine" behind our group. When I say "medicine" I think I mean, what makes us work? What is it that we do that gives each of us the hope and the will to face another day without our beloved children? For me it is just knowing and having each of you to talk to plain and simple. I tried all the pills and all the head shrinks and all the books, some helped a little but none helped me become the strong woman that I am today more than having the ability to connect to each of you! I knew when I felt as though I could not go on I could write my thoughts, screaming and ranting or crying out for someone to listen to me and tell me "I could" and "You are not insane" and all the hugs and love meant the world to me.
There was no better "medicine" than each of you being there for me when I needed you the most. Someone to talk to that truly understood what was going on in my head and helping me to realize that I was not alone.
My friend Charlayne put into words for me the most profound way of unstanding what it was I wanted to share with you and with her permission I am posting a letter she wrote that I hope will inspire each of you, inspire you to write to me or to Teri in your own words and send it to either of us...we have huge plans for FMO and with your help we will succeed and in turn help thousands of grieving Mothers in the world, yes I said the world.
The first paragraph of Charlayne's letter hit me as "profound" and I believe we each hold a square to this quilt we have begun to weave together. So please share with me your personal feelings on this matter. I so look forward to hearing from each of you. The letters that you write will be forwarded to whichever outlet becomes usable for us to grow into an organization worldwide.
My email address is lillowyth@gmail.com or you can just journal your letter. For those that have not "friended" me yet please pass the word the best way you can so that we can collect hundreds of letters for this venture.
Be strong ladies, chins held high, be proud and honor all of our children.
All my love to each of you always.
Walking beside you always...
Jacqueline
Dear Dr. Phil ~~In today’s society, we have labels for everyone. Some are good and some are mean and ugly. Some are just basically used to describe a person. A child without parents, is called an orphan. Those that have lost a spouse are called a widow or widower. Yet, when you look in the dictionary, no one can label a mother that has lost a child. However, I call them, For Moms Only/FMO.Fours years ago I lost my only child, Reece. He was 21 years old when he died. He passed away in June and for the next six months of my life, it was simply a blur. I held onto hope that my Reece had simply went away for a bit or that he was playing a joke on me. I had to be strong for my parents and cover up any pain with work. I had to keep myself together or just fall apart. I went through the motions of life but without my son. I was logical and knew what I was going through in my head, just my heart didn’t follow suit.Come January, I started to feel the rubber-band (me) stretch so much that it would break. Due to my finances, I did a search on-line for some kind of grief counseling or where to go. I stumbled onto a website that was a community of various groups. They ranged from abstinence to Zellweger syndrome. One of the groups was bereavement. I created an account and joined. Much to my surprise, with all the other things this site offered, I was able to meet other moms that hat had lost children. Please understand, Dr. Phil, as qualified as you are, you just wouldn’t be someone I would believe that could truly get where I was coming from. I even thought about writing you a few times. It just appeared to me, that journaling on this website and sharing my journals with these moms, I was able to see that I was not alone. On this site, we lifted each other up, we sent hugs and love and understanding. We cheered each other along. We cried with one another, even if it was on line. We shared our anger, our depression, our lives, and ourselves. Mostly, we shared our children. We took each second, each minute, each hour, each day together. During that time, the friendships we made had us questioning was it possible to get together and meet. Somewhere, in the midst of all the grief, For Moms Only was created. Some wonderful take charge women decided we should get together and we should meet! September 2007 our first retreat was formed. Only a handful of women showed up from across the states in Charleston. I was so blessed to meet these wonderful women at that time. It is amazing what has come out of our journaling and sharing. With the women of FMO, we are allowed to take off the mask that we put on daily to face society. We can be ourselves. No one judges us when we cry or laugh out loud. I am sure that for most, medication is required just to get by. Some have used that, me included. But I have found that by journaling and talking to these women, medication is not needed very long. It is because we have each other. We know that we are not alone. We know that the person we are talking to is in the same boat as we are. Or in some cases, has been in there before. They help guide with how they handled things, how they celebrate their child’s life and death, how they made it from day to day. Of course, it isn’t a normal grief counseling. On the other hand, we aren’t normal mothers, although we try to figure out our new normalcy in life as we know it now. A life without our children. http://reece.memory-of.com/
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