Hosting Memorial and Remembrance Events
Why host remembrance events?
Remembrance events offer the perfect way for families to continue to honor and connect with their baby long after his or her death. These events provide positive meaning and connection to their child's life and facilitate a way for families to cope, survive and even thrive in their "new normal."
October 15 is International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. On this day, we light a candle at 7 PM, in every time zone, and leave it burning for one hour- creating a world-wide Wave of Light in honor of babies who have died.
The holidays can be a lonely time for bereaved parents, and events held during this time are often the highlight of bereaved families' holiday season. Remembrance events create opportunities for parents to include their baby in their holiday traditions and memories.
When you provide ways for grandparents to honor their beloved grandchild, you are acknowledging their very real grief and reassuring them you care about and support the entire family, not just the bereaved parents.
The physical act of creating something beautiful can be a soothing way for moms, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends of the baby to remember and honor the baby they miss. The memento can be worn and cherished as a special reminder of a loved baby.
Working with a local funeral home to provide burial services is a meaningful and appreciated way to support parents who lose their baby early in pregnancy.
Knowing others love and remember their baby is heartwarming to bereaved parents. Hosting a gathering to make awareness ribbons, candles, or share their stories is a way to honor babies while spreading awareness.
These can be two of the most difficult days for grieving parents to endure, and hosting an event that acknowledges their parenthood enables them to gather in fellowship while creating something tangible, too. It provides a way to allow them to grieve and parent their baby.
The physical act of creating something beautiful that reminds moms, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends of the baby they are missing can be soothing.
Ritual flows from relationship.
Relationship forms the bridge from suffering to hope.
Hope transforms.
~From Ritual and Reflection when a Child Dies
Parents find it empowering, comforting and healing when they are given opportunities to remember and honor their babies
with others who understand their great loss.