Lubbock non-profit organization to host Walk to Remember for parents who have lost a child

Lubbock, Texas — A local non-profit organization, The Compassionate Friends, will host its eighth annual “Walk to Remember” for parents who have lost a child unexpectedly and find comfort in the organization itself.

However, the chapter leader of The Compassionate Friends in Lubbock, Isabel Espinoza said she is glad the organization reached out to her about starting the Lubbock chapter. Espinoza said she had to travel miles to go to a group after losing her daughter in a car crash.

“The nearest chapter that I found was in Big Springs. So I would monthly I would drive over there 2 hours,” Espinoza said. “I just felt being with somebody in a room one-on-one was what I needed. They have amazing online groups, but I needed I needed somebody to hug, somebody to touch and just somebody that I could see that was actually there.”

Espinoza knew another person who would be on board to help really get this chapter off the ground because she knows exactly how it feels to lose a child.

Espinoza said, “I asked Deneis, my best friend, if she would want to start it with me because her daughter had passed away two years before my daughter, and they were actually friends.”

Both women said that the group, The Compassion Friends, is about being a support for other grieving parents such as them.

The co-chapter leader, Deneis Arriaga said, “We went through the same thing. You know, it does pass. It does get I hate to say, but it does get just a tiny bit easier, um, you know, like I said, we don’t like to say that, but it, we, you just learn to deal with it better.”

Treasurer of the organization, Sunny Acevedo, who was a parent who reached out to both Espinoza and Arriaga after losing her daughter said it’s how the group turns the grief into a healing process.

Acevedo said, “Their meetings help out a lot. You meet different families, and even a lot of us don’t talk about our siblings. They don’t talk about the pain of what has gone through their family. But it’s a lot of the parents discussing about how they feel, what they’re going through. So it is amazing.”

With their eighth annual walk coming up Arriaga said, “We may not see them at our meetings, um, all the time, every month, but when we have our walk or a candle lighting, it’s a, it’s a real big turnout. It’s good to see, you know, all these people. And it’s sad to see, but it’s also good to see all these families coming in. It’s not just to come and grieve, you know, it’s just to get to know one another.”

The Walk to Remember will be October 19th at Buddy Holly Park. And if you would like to donate anything to the organization, click here .

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