TEMPLE, Texas — Losing someone or something you care about can be hard on a person. Experts say whatever type of grief you're dealing with, it's important to have a supportive community around you.
The Young's Daughter Funeral Home in Temple hosts a weekly grief support group to help families get through a loss.
Loretta Schulze is a part of one group and she recently told 25 News she doesn't know how she would've gotten through the loss of her husband, Eldon, without it.
Schulze lost her husband in late 2021 after 36 years of marriage. He passed away after a six-year battle with cancer.
"We had a wonderful life together," she said. "I didn't want to see him go at all, but I did not want to see him suffer. I know he's with the Lord now and he's in heaven."
She started attending grief share in February. Between her faith and the support of the group, she said she's been able to cope with her loss.
"It's so much easier when you have someone who has the same problem that you do and you have gone through the same thing," Schulze said.
"All of us are built for community," group leader and Unity of the Brethren Pastor Joe Emerson said. "I think just in our humanity, we weren't put together to be alone. We were put together to have relationships."
Emerson said the group focuses on those relationships and the faith of the participants.
"The main relationship that we need to have and one that I think grief share highlights is our relationship with God, our spiritual relationship and that is of vital importance in the grief share process," he said.
That process looks different for everyone. If you know someone is struggling, support can often be just a phone call.
"Sometimes we don't call or don't reach out because we don't know what to say," Emerson said. "Rather than call and say the wrong thing, we just don't call. What I think we should do is just understand that it's okay to call and say I was just thinking about you."
The group meets every Monday at 6 p.m. If you would like to join them, you can give them a call at (254) 401-1302.
