President’s Message

Welcome to 2025.

I always struggle with getting started with these messages, but once underway the narrative seems to flow.  I thought, as it was the start of a New Year, that it would be appropriate to say something relating to volunteering (which I will) as we all think about resolutions or plans for the period ahead.

I have to admit, that I have never really liked the old / new year period.  I was usually the one shedding a tear with the rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” – which roughly translates to “for old times sake” in Old English.  It’s a song that evokes nostalgia and reflection from one year to the next – but personally I thought of it in terms of everything that had happened over the past 12 months was now history and could never be recaptured.  I suppose I’m just a romantic at heart and perhaps relish the moment so much, that I don’t want it to race ahead and become the past.  In theory, the New Year usually signifies a new starting point, perhaps with new expectations, new challenges, new beginnings, as well as new joys and new sadnesses.  However, since that time when my life changed significantly, it now means that in theory I enter another year further along in my grief, further along since that awful day with the death of my daughter and a time when my family was intact.  I anticipate that for each of us, we see the passing of the years as being further away from that period when our lives were different, where we never knew this anguish or sadness.

The world would have us believe that our grief might have lessened with the passage of the years, but we all know the reality is that we build our new life around our loss.  We take one step forward at a time, lead the life that our loved ones would have wanted and carry them forward into the new year, in that special place reserved in our hearts for them.

The start of the new year also has me pondering what challenges the organisation will face?  However, I am encouraged by the fact, as we start this year, we now have 3 new Board members who have volunteered to share the governance responsibilities.  No organisation can survive without the goodwill of its’ members, in coming forward and offering their skills in the support of others. I would also like to think that we have the additional motivation in doing so, in memory of our children, brothers, sisters and grandchildren.  Not one of us wanted to belong to this club, but I know that it has been my saving grace in feeling supported and understood.  Seven years ago, I had never heard of TCF – now it is part of that integral tapestry that has been woven around my loss and has given me the strength to go on.

So, as we start the new year, I hope my words inspire you in thinking about volunteering in some capacity within the organisation and supporting others, as they sadly join our ranks, and offering to them what others volunteered in supporting you. 

My best wishes to each and every one of you for 2025

Hugs to you all.

Chris