Angela Goes to Camp

Angela is at camp. Only eight years old, her mother recently died of breast cancer. Too young to understand what’s happening, she has emotionally shut down. Ever since the funeral she doesn’t even talk about her mother.

But Angela is not at just any camp. She’s attending Camp Monarch, a program created by Covenant Hospice. It is designed for children who have recently lost a parent or loved one that is free of charge and available to any child in the community who needs it. 

Children meet for the day and participate in a variety of play activities. Frequently when there is a death in the family, especially after a long illness, a child’s emotional needs are overlooked. Camp Monarch seeks to remedy that. Campers make arts and crafts, they might learn circus tricks at a clown school, or climb a rock wall, take a pirate cruise, or put on a play. This all may sound like fun and games but it isn’t.

Far from being just children’s games, the camp activities are what one Monarch counselor calls “therapy in disguise.” Using the simple play of children, Camp Monarch tries to help Angela with her grief, build up her self-esteem, and help her reconnect with what it’s like to be a child.

But Angela also does something else. She begins to talk to other children. And this is where her healing begins.

In between the rock climbing and the arts and crafts, Angela befriends Jim, whose dad died of cancer just like her mom. Then she plays with Latisha whose brother was killed in a car accident, and finger-paints with Alice whose grandma died of old age. Suddenly she’s surrounded by children going through the same thing she is. Angela begins to understand she isn’t so different from other children after all.

As Angela’s day at Camp Monarch draws to a close, children gather around a campfire to sing some songs. A counselor passes around a little drum. She tells the children to beat the drum and say whatever’s on their mind. Some of the children mention people they’ve lost, others talk about how much fun they had, and some beat the drum as wildly as they can. Finally the drum is passed to Angela.

She beats it slowly, saying nothing at first. But soon, basked in the warmth of newfound friends, she softly says, 

“Momma. Momma.”

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