Dealing with loneliness and sadness

Weßling - From one day to the next, the Getz family had to deal with the fact that little Joshua would not live long. Today Marion Getz is the head of the Weßlinger association JoMa-Projekt. The 49-year-old and her staff support patients, parents and siblings with psychosocial offers through the difficult times. Because after the diagnosis "dying and death leave the relatives deeply wounded", she knows from experience. 

JoMa is an amalgamation of the names Joshua and Maren. They are two children who share a fate: they had to leave life much too early. Maren is the daughter of Christine Stoppel-Schulze and Joshua the son of Marion and Tobias Getz. The parents jointly initiated the JoMa project in 2015. Joshua died at the age of twelve after doctors diagnosed him with leukodystrophy in 1998 - a disease that attacks brain matter and inevitably leads to death. “We were sent home with our son, who was condemned to die slowly, in our arms,” the mother recalls. There was no help back then. On her own, she took a few semesters off from her studies and wrote her thesis on siblings of terminally ill children. She also developed a concept for affected families,which later flowed into the seminars offered by the Buskinder association, which was only founded in 2000 and which has been offered in the JoMa project for six years. "We offer professional psychosocial support to strengthen and stabilize such as trauma processing, grief support and multi-day seminars," explains Marion Getz. Because all future plans for the families are lost in one fell swoop. And after the child's death, they stand in front of a pile of broken glass for the second time.And after the child's death, they stand in front of a pile of broken glass for the second time.And after the child's death, they stand in front of a pile of broken glass for the second time.

A big problem is society, which has not learned to deal with situations like these.

"I get calls from mothers or fathers who say: I feel so alone," reports the social and trauma pedagogue.

The Weßlinger author described this exclusion in society after “Joshua” and the mourning booklet “Herzeis” in “Leben inbetween”.

The diagnosis is not an isolated case, after all, around 50,000 children and adolescents in Germany live with incurable, fatal diseases, she says.

The four JoMa employees show from which offices those affected get help or bring them into conversation with each other.

For example at the parents' breakfast, where they share their grief and exchange helpful experiences.

The association currently looks after around 70 families who are faced with new challenges every day - and who have to ask themselves things like "How does it go to die?", Says Marion Getz.

Problems that you can give emotional expression to at Schulstrasse 10, for example in art therapy.

And they learn to experience a little happiness in spite of everything.

The seven-year-old, whose father was skiing with her in his rucksack, was happy.

Just like Joshua at the summit after his mother Marion Getz had carried him up in a cloth.

Memories that no one can take away from her.

The grief will accompany those affected for many years to come, she says.

And the association stands by the people for as long as they need to.

Because their motto is: "We accompany life".

The JoMa project is financed exclusively through donations.

Donations with a donation receipt are possible to: Verein JoMa, Sparkasse Fürstenfeldbruck, IBAN: DE17 7005 3070 0031 9289 30, BIC: BYLADEM1FFB.