Chapter 9: Parents’ Group

From Take Care of My Child…for a While by Joyce Sawyer

Dale and I had felt the need for a parents’ group for a long time; other families that were experiencing what we were. There wasn’t such a group in our area. Dr. Serota said he knew there was a real need for this type of group, particularly among military families, where relatives are often miles or states away.

When we started working on this project, the Red Cross and the professional medical people gave us very good support, but it still took months to get the group going.

We finally had our first meeting. To our surprise, twenty-two people came. We discussed what help we could be to each other and what topics we would like to discuss at future meetings. The main thing was being able to express our feelings and frustrations and being able to learn how other parents dealt with the problems of children with cancer.

The group met monthly and we felt it was a help to all of us.

Chapter 10 to follow