Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Memorial Service 2013

In their name
Who are gone
These young hearts
These flawless souls
In their name
Let our lives grow
~Sascha Wagner

We attended the Celebration of Life Memorial Service on September 15th in memory of Abrielle and other children who passed at Children's Mercy.  The girls enjoy how they can be included in the ceremony and that they get to remember their sister too.

They made leaves for the memorial tree.




Litany of Remembrance
As we gather, let us lift our voices!
Our voices speak the names of our beloved children, who have touched our lives and our hearts.
Remembering their names together we lift our voices in grief,
For we share the common bond ~ the experience of loving a child who has died.
Our voices cry out with a strange mixture of tears and laughter,
For we have experienced the tension between joy and sorrow, deep love and suffering.
As we remember our children, we give voice to both grief and hope,
For even as we grieve, we are transformed by the power of love.
Our voices utter prayers for comfort and peace.
Prayers that weave the names and memories of our children into the fiber of our being and fill us with the courage to face each new day open to the mysteries of life.
In one voice,
We give thanks for our children.
(written by Rev. Claudia Ricks Hubbard)





Like the Butterfly
 
It fluttered there above my head,
weightless in the soft breeze.
I reached up my hand,
it lit upon my finger.
 
Waving glistening wings together
it looked at me for timeless moments.
I smiled, reaching deep and
finding all those cherished memories.
 
As it flitted off through the sunlit morning,
I knew we had said hello once more.
~ Leslie Langford 


We also each receive a small heart shaped stone with an impression of a butterfly in it and a magnet.