This month, as part of our Loved and Lost programme, you’re invited to another Grief Gathering, this time in Crosby Library with Laura Yates and librarian Emma Latham.

Wednesday 10th September
11am - 1pm
Meet at Crosby Library

A welcoming space, whether you’ve experienced grief or not, a Grief Gathering invites participants to connect, share feelings, ideas and experiences around love and loss. This time, we’ll be starting at Crosby Library before going on a short walk (up to 2 miles) in Rimrose Valley Country Park. 
Research suggests that walking can help people express themselves more freely and so we’ll meet, walk, return to the library for warming refreshments and reflect on what we talked about there too. 

For their collaborative Grief Gathering, Laura and Emma have chosen collective walking as a way of connecting to the ideas and feelings around grief and loss as well as using our connection to nature to spark conversations around grief and rebirth. The Gathering is rooted in their own lived experiences of loss, the practices they’ve found helpful in processing grief, and the writing of author Tessa McWatt. Her memoir Snag: A Mother, A Forest and Wild Grief will also be the focus of the Loved and Lost Reading Group later in September.

The walk will last approximately one hour so you must be confident that you can be out for that length of time (staff are unable to physically aid participants).
Please wear weather appropriate clothing and footwear suitable for walking (trainers or boots). If the weather is very bad then the gathering will remain in the library community room.
We keep gatherings small, limited to 12 people maximum, so booking is essential.

Please let us know any access or dietary requirements when booking, so we can make the session comfortable and welcoming for you.
Laura is an arts participation specialist, producer, writer and story-teller born in Liverpool and currently living in Sefton. Emma is a member of the Sefton Libraries team and runs the Loved and Lost shared reading group at Formby Library in association with The Reader.

Warm thanks to This Grief Thing - a project that invites people to think, talk and learn about grief. It was created by the two artists at Fevered Sleep which inspired the Grief Gatherings.