Prior to COVID, we were organizing monthly “coffee clutches” at a local restaurant with fellow loss moms. During that time we talked about our losses, life after them, and everything in between. It was meant to be a time of fellowship and support with fellow women who just “get it” and it truly was.
When COVID hit, those stopped, along with any other local in-person support groups.
So, we took our little “coffee clutches” online and started our monthly peer-to-peer meet-ups.
These meet-ups are meant to be a virtual gathering of fellow loss moms to talk about their losses and life after them. There are no discussion topics, just moms sharing what is on their hearts and others commiserating with them.
Through these monthly meetings, we have connected with mothers from all over the country and THE WORLD! We have our “regulars” and they have turned into real life friendships.
New mothers are always welcomed with open arms. They are given a safe space to share their experiences or simply listen to others.
Sometimes these groups can get large with up to 16 people or more in attendance. We’ve found that when we would all go around and share our stories at the beginning of each meet-up, a large portion of our time together would be taken up. As a way to mitigate that, we started asking attendants to share their story, however long or short they want them to be, when they sign up to attend the meeting. On the day of the meet-up, we send an email out with the Zoom link and a Google doc of every attendant’s story. This way we can familiarize ourselves with the other parties’ stories before getting together. We always allow mothers to share their story in more detail,if they would like during their first meeting. We never want someone to feel like they can’t share their story, but we also want everyone to have the opportunity to share what is on their hearts that month and we’ve found this is the best way to achieve both.
These meet-ups truly hold such a special place in our hearts. All are welcomed to join….always.
The Lucky Anchor Project 