Mother who lost son starts support group

Between the recent rash of road accidents and gang inspired shootings, there is no shortage in Belize of parents who have performed the painful task of burying their children. On May fourteenth, Carolyn Westby lost her twenty-six year old son, Wayne Westby, after his motorcycle crashed into a car on the Northern Highway. But instead of living alone in despair, Westby has decided to share her experience and establish a support group to help those, like herself, deal with the trauma of death in the family.

Carolyn Westby

“We live in a society that doesn’t talk much about death. You die, you have a wake, you have the funeral and people go about their business. But the individual now is left there with all this emotional pain, I mean it’s something that I can’t even explain. And there is nobody or any group out there that you can go to. People might not want to hear you all the time talking about death and your loved one. So if we get people together who are experiencing the same thing, then I think it will help us to really heal.”

“I am struggling and I’m a high school counselor, and so I decided for me to heal, I could touch somebody else’s life out there by sharing and forming a support group. So that’s why I decided to embark on this.”

For more information on the support group you can contact Westby at telephone number 227-8455.