14/06/2025
Dear Friends,
We would love your support to help a couple of bereaved parents who have lost their children to substance use to attend our "Grief & Love" Retreat in the peaceful countryside of Sweden.
This will be our second "Grief & Love" Retreat and there are quite a few parents that would love to attend but don’t have the means to do so. Last year, thanks to your generosity, three parents were able to attend the retreat due to your help. This year we hope to welcome more parents.
Since the retreat is this August, we hope to raise enough by early July for everyone to plan accordingly.
As a radical act of self-care and self-love on our grief journey, we will, again, gather and immerse ourselves in nature, yoga, mindfulness, healing sound baths, creative arts, swimming in clean lakes, connecting deeper with our selves and other parents that "gets it".
About a year after I lost my son Lance, to fentanyl poisoning, I was fortunate enough to step out of my busy daily life and experience the power of a retreat. It provided me the space to grow around my grief and dip into the love that was at the root of my pain from this unbearable loss. I was then able to find the strength and to serve in honor of my son and volunteer as a grief group leader and to teach yoga for grief and loss. David Kessler (well known grief educator) said "You will not 'get over' the loss of a loved one; you will learn to live with it".
The grief and stigma of this loss can be very isolating, most of us find support with other parents who went through a similar loss in online grief support groups, such as LITT (Love In The Trenches). We only know each other from behind our screen; it will be exciting and healing to meet in person. Last summers retreat was an immersion in support, care, sharing, crying, laughing and so much more. It was a deeply profound week of help and healing. At the bottom of this page, you will find a link to a few parents sharing about the impact of the retreat. Please watch at least one. They are powerful.
We are grateful and honored to be able to host this second "Grief & Love" Retreat for parents who have had this type of loss. My wish for this retreat, and ones like it in the future, is that every bereaved parent that wants to be here, can be here! I honestly believe it takes a global village and that it's possible!
If this is something you wish to support and help make happen, please go to the GoFundMe link below.
Here are a few shares from some of the parents that attended the "Grief and Love" Retreat last year.
https://youtu.be/ytUT-181ZM8
https://youtu.be/8EPM8-iwjx4
https://youtu.be/7KoY7CZ_hFE
https://youtu.be/bOZR0dJOZLI
Here’s our retreat link if you want to know more about it: https://soham.se/grief-loss-love/
With Love & Gratitude,
Prema (Celena)
https://www.gofundme.com/f/Support-bereaved-parents-who-have-lost-a-child
Dear Friends, We would love your support to help a couple… Prema Celena Paxton needs your support for Support Bereaved Parents at the "Grief and Love" Retreat
