Bringing joy to grieving children

Coconut Creek - Abby Mosher knows what it's like to lose a loved one. "My family was involved in a head-on collision and my husband was killed. My son was eight years old at the time, we were on vacation and when I came back to Florida I realized that our community had no grief support."

She wanted children to have a place to grieve. She founded Tomorrow's Rainbow."We have been working with grieving children for almost five yearsnow. It will be five years in October and we started out with one group of five children, now we have grown to six groups of 18 children each."

Sixteen year old Jami Tero attends weekly meetings."Tomorrow's Rainbow has kept me benefiting, I guess I can start it like that. I started at the age of 14 when my father passed away and ever since coming here has really just been a rock a stability that I can just count on. Calming are the horses, it's really the camaraderie, it really helps us because there is an entire group of teens like me. This entire group of kids like other people and everyone has been through some of the same situations."

Mosher says having animals near the children helps the children express their grief. "I had heard about the use of miniature horses to work with sick and at risk children and so I really wanted to have a special place where the children could feel a little bit special, kind of like a little oasis."

Zoe Teitelbaum says she has met friends through Tomorrow's Rainbow. "We usually talk about stuff and then we come over here and pick a horse to get them out, get their stall cleaned, clean them and a bunch of other stuff."
The organization also helps Laura Tero. "It helped me a lot because a lot of stuff happened in fifth grade that year and I just came here and Abby was a wonderful help to me."

Eleven year old Abbey Teitelbaum says she found kids her age who had experienced losing a parent. "It's helped me a lot because at first I felt like the only person who has ever experienced this, and I did not have a lot of friends who went through this so it's hard to talk to them and for them to say I know what you feel like, so here I have friends who can do that."

Mosher says her organization, which is supported by donations, will continue to make a difference for the young who are grieving. "So we need to make sure we provide support so that these children don't have to have negative responses to unresolved grief down the road."

Tomorrow's Rainbow
4341 NW 39th Avenue
Coconut Creek
954-978-2390 Office

http://www.tomorrowsrainbow.org