HOME | bereaved-parents

21 years of Hope and Healing!

Upcoming Meetings:

Zoom Meeting:

2nd Thursday

7:00 p.m.

In-Person Support:

4th Sunday

3:00 p.m.

First United Presbyterian Church of Dale City

14391 Minnieville Rd, Woodbridge, VA 22193

1st Thursday

7:00 p.m.

Manassas Church of the Brethren

10047 Nokesville Road, Room 207

Manassas, VA 20110

Special Meetings:

SAAD

(Support After Addiction Death)

3rd Friday

7:00 p.m.

First United Presbyterian Church of Dale City

14391 Minnieville Rd, Woodbridge, VA 22193

AMORe

(All Murdered Offspring Remembered)

2nd Sunday

3 p.m.

3182 Golansky Blvd, Suite 101

Woodbridge, VA

The Nothern Virginia Chapter of the Bereaved Parents of the USA wants to express our sincere sympathy in the death of your beloved child. We know the pain you are going through as we each have had a child die. Our children were all ages and died from many different circumstances.

We want you to know that we are here for you, to give a hug, a listening ear, offer you comfort and support. You need to know you are not alone on this painful journey through grief.

Bereaved Parents of the USA (BPUSA) is a national non-profit self-help group that offers support, understanding, compassion and hope to bereaved parents grandparents or siblings struggling to rebuild their lives after the death of their children, grandchildren or siblings.

You will never get over the death of your child but with our help and support we can travel this journey together. We publish an on-line newsletter to keep our members up-to-date on our activities and events. The newsletter has poems, stories, and helpful information to help you on your grief journey. Parents are given the opportunity to sponsor the newsletter in memory of their child and can write letters, submit poems or stories and pictures of their child.

Our group meets monthly for a support meeting. At these meetings you are free to talk about your child or you don't have to talk at all.

The first meeting is the hardest, but once you take that first big step you will find our group to be very supportive and understanding. Please come and share your child with us!

We sponsor special events such as a Butterfly Release at our Memorial Garden in August, a Picnic with a Lotus Flower Release in October and a Candle Lighting Service in December.

The National Organization of BPUSA hosts a National Gathering each summer in different parts of the United States which are very helpful and beneficial to all bereaved parents no matter where they are on the grief journey.

Goals of Bereaved Parents of the USA

To educate families about the grief process and all its complexities as it applies to the death of a child at any age and from any cause.
To aid and support those who are suffering such a loss, regardless of race, creed, or financial situation.
To provide monthly meetings with sharing groups and occasional information programs.
To supply the telephone numbers of other bereaved parents, siblings, and grandparents who are able to offer support to other newly bereaved families.
To inform and educate members of the helping professions who interact with bereaved parents as to the nature and duration of parent/sibling/grandparent bereavement.

Welcome,
You are not alone...

We are the parents whose children have died. We are the siblings whose brothers and sisters no longer walk with us through life. We are the grandparents who have buried grandchildren.

We come together as Bereaved Parents of the USA to provide a safe space where grieving families can connect, share our stories, and learn to rebuild our lives. We attend meetings whenever we can and for as long as we find helpful. We share our fears, confusion, anger, guilt, frustrations, emptiness, and feelings of hopelessness, knowing these emotions will be met with compassion and understanding. As we support, comfort and encourage one another, we offer hope and healing. As we confront the deaths of our loved ones, our shared grief brings us to a common ground that transcends differences, building mutual understanding across the boundaries of culture, race, faith, values, abilities, and lifestyle.

Together we celebrate the lives of our children, siblings, and grandchildren, sharing the joys and the heartbreaks as well as the love that will never fade. Together, strengthened by the bonds we create, we offer what we have learned from one another to every bereaved family, no matter how recent or long ago the death.

We are the Bereaved Parents of the USA. We welcome you.

Neale Thompson

4/07/71 ~ 4/09/93