Angels In Our Midst

I was amazed at the way this young woman was touching the lives of children. We all need such a person in our lives when tragedy strikes. This appeared in Memphis Parent in 2003.


When Angela Hamblin got her first job working with terminally ill children at a camp in Eustice, Florida, it was love at first sight. She tried other areas in social work such as drug and alcohol rehab and is filled with admiration for those who champion the cause. But Angela knew from the start that children were her passion.

As a Bereavement Supervisor for Hospice at Baptist Trinity Healthcare, Angela focuses on helping her terminally ill patients cope with pain and grief. When it came to helping the children left behind, however, she felt neither she nor they had anywhere to turn. After pulling community resources and receiving a grant from Baptist Memorial Hospital, Camp Good Grief was born, equipping Angela to fulfill her passion of reaching hurting children.

Jessicagrace DeVries, 9, is just one of the many children who have been touched by Angela. After losing her father, George, to brain cancer when she was seven, Jessicagrace began to internalize her grief. “Now I know it is okay to cry because of what Angela taught me at Camp Good Grief,” says Jessicagrace, who found her release in writing a letter to her father and sending it up in a balloon during camp. “Each person took turns letting go,” she adds, “and at first I didn’t want anyone to see me cry, but then Angela was there with me, and I knew it was okay.”

“God sent Angela to us when we were going through the deepest sadness of our lives,” says Jessicagrace’s mother, Sandy. “She saw things I couldn’t see, wrapping her arms around my daughter and reaching her in a way that I couldn’t because I was dealing with my own grief.”

Angela encourages children to get comfortable with grief, in essence redefining the meaning of the word. “By naming the camp “Good Grief” we are trying to communicate that grief is part of the healing process, and that is a very healthy thing.”

And how did Angela become so comfortable with grief that she could make it her full time job? “People can’t believe I do what I do,” says Angela, “but I just respond by stressing that we all have different gifts.

That’s just what an angel would say.