My name is Marie. I was married to Declan for over 40 years. In December 2021 he was diagnosed with stage four oesophagus cancer, and we were told it was terminal, and about six months after all that treatment, we were told the next step was palliative care.

My name is Kathleen Mooney, and I’m from County Clare. My husband Mike passed away in December 2022 and he was diagnosed with renal cancer. Early on in his treatment, his oncologist referred him to Milford. Declan’s only wish was that he didn’t want to die in a hospital. He wanted to die at home. They said they would facilitate that. And in fairness to them, they did their best and did facilitate him dying at home and he died in January 2023.

The bereavement service in Milford really is a continuation of palliative care, and what we understand as a palliative care provider is that the grief journey of families begins much earlier than the death of the patient. So, we support people right through the palliative journey, through the patient’s illness, and then after death, we offer bereavement support services to all family members.

After Declan passed away, I came to counselling in Milford Care Centre. Estelle was my counsellor, and she was unbelievable, because she helped me through my grief.

One on one support is where individuals come in and meet with a member of the social work team, and it’s really an opportunity for them to try to make sense of what they’re going through, to talk about what has happened, to express their grief in a very private place. Sometimes people come for individual support first and then decide that they’d like to attend a support group.

Initially, I was apprehensive going in with six strangers, but we all had the common bond of grief.

It’s really to combat the isolation that people feel in grief, that I’m going through this on my own, nobody else is feeling the same thing. We offer that opportunity to meet others going through something similar. There’s huge unity in that brokenness, where people can come together and feel understood, which they don’t do with other people who haven’t been bereaved.

I used to look forward to coming to our sessions, because I used to get great solace from talking to her. She helped me through the bad times, and she was there when I needed her. The bereavement support has been great. As far as I’m concerned, I just found that it gave me help because there were six other people with me who were in the same situation, and at least you could bond with people who are going through the same thing as you. We all bonded over the seven-week period. After the session, the support didn’t end. We stayed friends, and to this day, we support each other.