Video: 'So many people are going through the same pain' - Father-of-seven Bernard Branagan arranges meeting 'Let's Share Grief' to help others
Heartbroken father-of-seven Bernard Branagan has been inundated with messages since he posted a video about his grief after the sudden death of his wife Zipporah earlier this year.
Mr Branagan said his beloved wife Zipporah, who died suddenly in April and was in her 30s, was "the most encouraging person that you ever come across".
Zipporah was mother to Noah, Theo, Teddy, Isaac, Hugo, Ezra and baby Cooper, who was born last year.
In his third video, posted earlier this week, Mr Branagan said he ‘just wanted to thank everyone for all the messages and to hear of so many people going through the same pain’.
He added: ‘One woman said she has been in this for 30 years and it hasn’t got any easier’.
‘I have been blown away by the people and the lack of them getting together and so many people want to do something,’ he added.
‘Just to tell you the reason I done my first video, just over 3 weeks ago, I was putting my boys to bed and all that evening I was talking about their mother and how wonderful a woman she was and how incredible she was to me and to them.
‘I then gave them a kiss from me and a kiss from their mother.
‘And Isaac the 4th child turned around and said to me ‘daddy if mummy was such a wonderful person and God was so good why didn’t God take two bad people and leave mummy behind for us’?
‘That nearly broke my heart in two.
‘When children ask these innocent questions you see there is so much pain in them and in everyone’.
He added that through the 1,500 messages he has received he ‘can see how much pain people are in’.
‘So on the 28th of this month at the Burrendale (hotel) in Newcastle we are going to host a night where anyone suffering from grief can come and tell their story.
‘Or they can come and listen – but hopefully that night we will all get something out of it.
‘I know I am not alone in this passage of grief that we are all going through.
‘So if you want to come send me a direct message as there are a limited number of seats,’ he added.
Earlier Mr Branagan said that his loss had also brought an outpouring of kindness from all communities in Northern Ireland.
He said he has been extended friendship from his local Presbyterian church to his GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) club.