BY LISA VALENTINE
Lake Orion Review Staff Writer

The average person might not know the difference between grieving the loss of a loved one and mourning the loss of one, but that’s why the GriefShare recovery support group is there.
Part of the nationwide GriefShare network, the group meets at Lake Orion’s Good Shepherd Lutheran Church every Monday evening and is led by Stephen Minister (someone specially trained in counseling and listening to people) Mary Shafor. GriefShare is a non-denominational group that features bibilical teaching on grief and recovery topics.
Shafor began leading the group, which is really a 13-week class, in September but said someone else at Good Shepherd led the group for eight years prior to that. The GriefShare program began in 1993.
“I’m a Stephen Minister so I have 50 weeks of training for that…that’s how I came to do this,” she explained. “And I lost my husband two years ago.”
GriefShare is a “seminar support group,” with each class covering a different grief and recovery topic, such as “The Seasons of Grief,” “The Emotions of Grief,” and “Growing Through Grief.”
“We have a video and we kind of talk from that,” Shafor said. “It isn’t something you have to start from the beginning…you can come in at anytime. It’s very informal.”
Shafor currently has about six people in the class, but is getting ready to begin a new session at the beginning of February.
“The people in the group have been from in their 30s to 75 years old,” she said. “The class teaches you to go from grieving to mourning.”
The difference, according to Shafor, is that grieving happens within, and mourning happens without, meaning that once you start mourning you are able to talk with others about your loss.
“That’s when you’re ready to start healing,” she said. “It’s very rewarding. I know I’m not supposed to get anything out of this, but it’s so nice to see someone come in who can’t even talk about their loved one, to being able to share things about them.”
Shafor said the benefits of going to a recovery group such as GriefShare rather than trying to deal with the emotions one goes through after losing a loved one on your own are numerous.
“It’s just the getting together with people dealing with the same thing you are,” she said. “Sharing your story and knowing they’ll be able to understand some of it.”
The GriefShare recovery support group meets at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1950 S. Baldwin Road, on Monday evenings from 7-9 p.m. For more information, contact Mary Shafor at 693-3330 or 693-3325. More information about GriefShare is available online at www.griefshare.org.