PHOTO PROVIDED Sharon Gensib, left, and Pamela Brauchli will facilitate Community Grief Support, starting Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. at Covenant United Methodist Church, Lock Haven.

PHOTO PROVIDED
Pamela Brauchli, left, and Sharon Gensib are seen in the lounge of Covenant United Methodist Church, Lock Haven, where they will facilitate Community Grief Support, starting Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m.

LOCK HAVEN — Grief comes to all of us, but we don’t have to endure it alone. When you feel stuck or alone in your grief, just being with someone who understands can lift some of the weight.

Community Grief Support is a new opportunity for men and women to gather and seek help together. Starting Tuesday, Aug. 13, the group will meet the second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 6-7 p.m. in the lounge of Covenant United Methodist Church, 44-46 W. Main St., Lock Haven.

The group is free, confidential and open to anyone. There is no work book to follow and no end date. It is designed to become an established, long-term program.

Sharon Gensib and Pamela Brauchli are the facilitators. They will open each session but the discussion will go where the group takes it.

“Everyone is welcome to come, to seek help or to just be here,” Pam said. “It’s a positive thing to just be with someone.”

She and Sharon have Grief Bgone on different grief journeys and will talk about what has helped them along the way.

Sharon grew up in Flemington, then moved to DC and worked in the Pentagon. She returned in 2005 to take care of her mother in her last years. She met her husband, Rev. Larry Cole, at Flemington United Methodist Church. He had lost his wife and Sharon was missing her mother, so they helped each other through the grieving process. They were married for three years before he succumbed to the illness he’d been fighting.

Sharon has mourned her parents, son and husband, and each journey has been different, she said. She is open to talking about how she got through each period of grief.

Pam has a deep understanding of how hard holidays can be. Her parents died within two weeks of each other in 2008. She grew even closer to her mother-in-law, who just died recently. All three of the deaths came in December. Pam buried her father on Christmas Eve.

She said that when her parents died, “I was devastated. I wished there was a group I could go to. I couldn’t find one that was available right away.”

A former teacher, Pam also worked for and with disabled adults, and for eight years she wrote policies for the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation. She has lived in Illinois and on the Gulf Coast of Texas as well as in Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Glenn, looked to our greater region as a retirement spot.

“I just love Lock Haven and I love these mountains,” Pam said. “I feel like they’re hugging me.”

Over the years, she has felt the nudge to start a grief support group. When she approached Pastor Justin Frear of Covenant Church with the idea, he connected her with Sharon and things just clicked. They’re also getting some great advice from Fran Decker who runs two support groups as well as Covenant Cafe, a program for people with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.

Sharon and Pam are ready to begin Community Grief Support and to let the conversations happen.

“If you want to come two or three times and you feel it’s helped you enough, that’s fine,” Sharon said. “Maybe you’ll want to return in a month or so, and that’s fine too.”

Light refreshments will be offered. A Bible will be available, should anyone wish to refer to a helpful verse. An optional prayer time will end the evening.

“You do get through it. There’s no one way,” Sharon said. “And God is with you every step of the way.”

If you would like more information about Community Grief Support, call the church office at 570-748-6481 and leave a message.