Traumatic and Violent Loss Specialized Zoom Gathering

TTSGI will be hosting a Zoom Gathering for members*** who lost their twin due to Suicide. Please see the details below and mark your calendar. It is important as only those who confirm attendance will be sent the Zoom link on Friday, August 27, 2021.

I hope you are all well and keeping safe. We also hope you have made it through the pandemic with not too much disruption.

As we begin to turn the corner on this horrific virus, there are a couple of things we can be thankful about. One item in particular we can feel good about is that we have learned how to Zoom, connecting people around the country and even around the world although we cannot meet in person. As Regional Coordinators for Twinless Twins Support Group International, we discussed how, with the new technology, we could reach more twins across a far greater distance and go beyond the traditional regional meetings. With support from the organization, we have set up a program of special meetings determined by how you lost your twin or how recent your loss.

Our facilitator and host: Joan Angelis, lost her identical twin sister, Jean, from suicide, on August 11, 1982, when they were 28 years old. Joan found TTSGI twenty years after Jean died, and said she believes her healing would have been much easier, had she found the organization earlier. Joan attended her first annual conference in Denver in 2009, and shortly after that became the Regional Coordinator for the North Central region, a seven-state region, a position she still has held for 12 years. In 2016, Joan won the Angel Award, for her work in TTSGI, which included hosting regional meetings in Seattle, Washington a few years in a row, a region that at the time had no Regional Coordinator.

When: Saturday, August 28, 2021
Time: 1:00pm East Coast, Noon Central Time, 11:00am Mountain, 10:00am West Coast
Discussion Topic: The Added Stigma of Losing a Twin Through Suicide
RSVP: with a “YES” response no later than 5pm on Monday, August 23 to joan.sea.angel@gmail.com

For the first meeting, we will plan for enough time to discuss our topic after we introduce ourselves. Do set enough time aside for a 1 ½ to a 2 hour gathering. We also plan to hold another gathering during the Winter.

Guidelines for TTSGI Specialized Group Zoom Gatherings:

1. During the sharing time, you will have the opportunity to share your story. You can choose, however, to participate in the session just by listening. You do not need to share a story if you are not comfortable doing so. Feel free to raise your hand when you are ready to share and the facilitator/host will recognize you. Your story should focus on yourself, your twin, and your experience of your twin loss, how you learned about it, how you feel, etc. Be sure to begin your sharing by letting us know your name and the state where you reside.
2. Our meetings are confidential and only between those of us on this call. Nothing is recorded. Please do not share any person’s personal identity or anything that would convey a person’s identity.
3. We are all on a similar path of healing. We may be at different places along the way but twinless twins understand the loss that other twinless twins feel so deeply. This is why “sharing time” is so special and can be helpful.
4. This Zoom gathering is a place of sanctity- a place of respect, support and safety. Listening to one another and hearing what is being shared can help us on our own journey of healing. We are a safe place to share because we do not ask one another questions nor do we judge anyone else’s feelings and experiences.
5. Please speak so everyone can hear you. Keep your mics on mute unless you are speaking. We ask that only one person speak at a time and that no questions are posed to that speaker once she/he finishes; we simply will move on to another twin speaker.
6. If it is ok with everyone, we will take a photo shot of the screen to share with the group at a later time and for the Twinless Times newsletter article.

We look forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact Joan at joan.sea.angel@gmail.com or by phone at 612-741-6583.

***If you are not a current paid member of TTSGI and you want to participate in this Zoom gathering then you want to join TTSGI. To join just go on the Twinless Twin Support Group International website and join the organization – https://twinlesstwins.org/members. It really is an easy process. If you are having a bit of a financial issue then you just need to reach out to the Executive Director and request scholarship assistance.