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Mail: PO Box 568 Texas City, TX 77592 Phone: (409) 996-9440 (Calls to this number will be re-turned within 24 hours)
Website: www.tcfgalvestoncounty.org
Facebook: The Compassionate Friends - Gal-veston Co. Chapter
Chapter Co-Leader & Treasurer: Pat Mejia [email protected] Chapter Co-Leader: Becky Bailey [email protected] Steering Committee Member: Sarah Revier Jackson Renae Medlin Christie Parker Webmaster: Christie Parker Newsletter Editor: Pat Mejia [email protected]
National Office:
The Compassionate Friends PO Box 3696
Oak Brook, IL 60522-3696 (877) 969-0010
www.compassionatefriends.org
Schedule for TCF 2018 Monthly Meetings 1st THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH
Meeting Location The Fellowship of Texas City
2222 TX-146 7:00 pm—8:30 pm
February 1st August 2nd March 1st September 6th April 5th October 4th May 3rd November 1st June 7th Open July 5th
If you need directions please email be at [email protected]
Galveston County Chapter February 2018
Mission of the Compassionate Friends When a child dies, at any age, the family suffers intense pain and may feel hopeless and isolated. The Compassionate Friends provides highly personal comfort, hope, and support to every family experiencing the death of a son or a daughter, a brother or a sister, or a grandchild, and helps others better assist the grieving family.
WE NEED NOT WALK ALONE
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February Birthdays
Norma Jean Diaz February 2nd
Diana Moreno, Mother
Robby Dale Martin, Jr. February 3rd
Lorena & Lanny Martin, Grandparents
Jerry Knight Haney February 5th
Dugan & Shirley Haney, Great-Grandparents
Faith Anderson February 5th
Adina Lew, Mother
Becky Kurusz February 6th
Helen Kurusz, Mother
Jeffrey Cook February 12th
Mike & Tammy Cook
Able Joe Romero February 16th
Tillie Ross, Mother
Dustin Wayne Garcia February 16th
Vicky Jones, Mother
Brett Ray Brantley February 18th
Karen Corn, Mother Rose Lee Lollar, Grandmother
Debra O’Tool Parker February 23rd
Verna O’Toole, Mother
Chaz William LaBry February 24th
Linda Massey, Grandmother
Evelina Therese “Teri” Mesquita Hall February 26th
Paul & Evelina Mesquita, Parents
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Trevor Harrigan Hodne
February 1st Garrett & Kim Hodne, Parents
Erick Joseph “Rick” Rogers
Feburary 3rd Erick & Dana Rogers, Parents
Dawnette Patrick
February 4th Diane Kelley, Mother
Robby Dale Martin, Jr.
February 11th Lorena & Lanny Martin, Grandparents
Raven Marie Johnston
February 14th Rachel Johnston, Mother
Evelina Therese “Teri” Mesquita Hall
February 17th Paul & Evelina Mesquita, Parents
Frances Kay Kimble
February 17th Mary G. Kimble, Mother
Jeffrey Joel Underwood
February 19th Dorothy Underwood, Mother
Robert “Bobby” Copeland
February 22nd Robert & Wanda Copeland, Parents
Chasity Renee’ Hilger
February 22nd Amanda Renee’ Wagner, Mother
Michael Bonura February 26th
Judy Bonura, Mother
Robert “Bert” Galvan, Jr. February 27th
Robert & Lucy Galvan, Parents
Teresa Smith February 27th
Emilie & Arnold Sefcik, Parents
Wayne Arthur Hart, Jr. February 27th
Wayne & Becky Hart, Parents
February Remembrances
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RobeRt “beRt” Galvan
Sunset : 02-27-99
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Becky and Sarah Bailey Story Hi, I am Becky Bailey, the other co-leader of this group. I have a wife, Renae Medlin, who also lost a child and is a member of this group. I have two children, Sarah was my oldest and my son Ben, who is still alive, the youngest one. I was born in Texas City and raised in Galveston. Ray Bailey and I were married for ten years. We lived in Texas City. Sarah was born on November 2, 1988, at Texas Women's Hospital in Houston, Texas. Her father, Ray recently passed away. Sarah passed away June 24, 2014, after she gave plasma and passed out on April 8, 2014. She broke her neck at the C3-C5 and was a quadriplegic. During surgery they had to place her on a breathing machine. The doctors did not know if she would ever come off of it. We did not know if she would gain feeling back in her limbs or not for 5 to 7 days. She regained no feeling in her limbs. She would be a quadriplegic for the rest of her life. Sarah lived 77 days before she passed away. She had been transferred to a nursing home in Huntsville, Texas. She got sick with pneumonia and I was trying to have her transferred back to the hospital in College Station, when she coded in the ambulance. They went to do chest compressions and her breathing tube came out and the stuff they were feeding her began to come out of the hole. They rushed her to Huntsville Memorial Hospital where she was pro-nounced dead. That was June 24, 2014. I was called by a nurse and given the news. Renae and I were on our way to College Station to meet the ambulance. We turned around and went to Huntsville instead. Sarah was a very lovable child. Her childhood was very normal and she had an exceptional love for animals. As she grew up, this love for animals continued. She belonged to the Texas City 4-H, where she raised a pig and several lambs. These animals were shown at the Galveston County Fair and Ro-deo. As she entered into 9th grade she became a member of the FFA, where she raised a lamb and a goat, also shown at Galveston County Fair and Rodeo. She received a scholarship from the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo for her work with these animals. After she graduated from high school she studied at Texas A&M where she got involved in raising her Australian Shepherd for show. She was also a member of Aggieland Pets with a Purpose. Her dog's name was "Chasing the Faith" but she was called Faith. She was also a service animal that Sarah would take to nursing homes and dis-tressed areas like West, Texas. I remember going to one of her shows and having to hide behind a pole so Faith would not see me, because then she would not pay attention to what she should be do-ing. We took Sarah out to supper and Sarah asked the manager if we could sit on the patio and if she could put her dog under the table and he agreed to it. Faith never disobeyed Sarah. The manager said, "if children obeyed as well as she did, his restaurant would be a different place." The waitress was afraid of dogs and Sarah talked her in to petting Faith. She was surprised that there had been a dog under the table. If she had known that there was a dog under the table she would have refused to wait on us, but she was glad she did not. Sarah warned her that not all dogs are as friendly as Faith. Sarah and Faith were in a car wreck going home one night from her father's house and was rear-ended. Her back car window blew out and so did Faith. Sarah saw Faith running into the woods as her car spun around. When the car stopped the backseat was against the front and the trunk was in the backseat. Sarah got her seatbelt undone and could not get her door open, so she crawled out over the backseat and trunk, through the broken window to find her dog. It was late night when she called us. Renae and I arrived to find her in tears. The police had dropped her off at a grocery store/BBQ place to stay until we got there, but they closed and left her outside by herself. She was scared left sitting out in the open off of a busy highway in the early morning hours without her dog. The peo-ple at the wrecker service said from the looks of the car, Sarah should not have survived the accident. It was hard to believe that her giving plasma would be the death of Sarah. When the doctor told us her life would be shorten not by years, or months, or even weeks, but by days, I told myself, "the doc-tor wasn't right, God has the final say."
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Sarah & Faith
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General Information
To Our Old Members We need your encouragement and support. You are the string that ties our group together and the glue that makes it stick. Each meeting we have new parents. Think back—what would it have been like for you if there had not been any “oldies” to welcome you, share your grief and encourage you? It was from them you heard, “Your pain will not always be this bad; it really does get
To Our New Members Coming to your first meeting is the hardest thing to do. But, you have nothing to lose and much to gain. Try not to judge your first meeting as to whether or not TCF will work for you. The second, third or fourth meeting might be the time you will find the right person—or just the right words spoken that will help you in your grief work.
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Important Information for Newsletter Submissions: Submissions sent by e-mail should go to [email protected]. You may continue to mail copies of submissions to Galveston County TCF, PO Box 568, Texas City, TX 77592. Submissions are accepted every month—for any reason. Deadlines for submis-sions each month is the 20th to be published in the next month’s newsletter. Please note, if your submission is received after the deadline, every accommoda-tion will be made to ensure that it is included in the current month’s newsletter. Some of the things to include beyond your child’s name and dates: Pictures A short poem, letter or note to your child Artwork Please include these above pieces as individual attachments in your e-mail, this will allow me to format the submission to the constraints of the newsletter de-sign. If sent as a PDF no corrections can be made & these do not always insert clearly. If you have any questions please email me at the below email address. Thanks! Pat Mejia, Newsletter Editor [email protected]
