People who’ve lost a child say it’s an experience that cannot be understood unless you’ve gone through it.
On Sunday, Northwest Georgians gathered at Georgia Highland’s Heritage Hall to remember their loss and share with those who understand at a candlelighting ceremony sponsored by The Compassionate Friends, an international self-help group that seeks to aid families grieving about the loss of a child.
For many, it was being able to share their grief with others who have lost children that drew them.
“These people aren’t afraid I’ll cry. We’re all in the same boat,” said Jean Jennings, 59, who came with her husband Peter, 62. The Jennings, who drove from Dallas, were remembering their daughter, Elizabeth Jean, who they lost 30 years ago, and their son, Peter Jason, who died in 2005.
It was Jean Jennings’ second candlelighting. Her stories of fellowship from a year ago convinced her husband to come, too. He said the ceremony was moving.
“Shedding the tears helps,” Peter Jennings said. “Time does not heal wounds. It just puts a scar over them.”
About 100 people attended the hour-long service, which featured readings, music and testimonials.
The Rev. Gary Graves, keynote speaker, shared the loss of his own daughter, Michelle, who died two years ago at age 28.
At the ceremony’s close, Graves read the 54 names of those who passed away. As the names were read, their families stood with their candle. Some stood alone; others, like the family of Jake Camp, 12, who died last June, were 20 strong.
Sandra Sitton, co-founder of the local The Compassionate Friends chapter, organized the service. She formed the chapter with other mothers after losing her daughter, Misty, 18, in a car wreck nine years ago.
Those ceremonies are important to parents, Sitton said.
“I think it’s a way of remembering,” she said, “letting the world and Floyd County know that I had a child.”
Sunday’s service was one of many worldwide. The services began in New Zealand, just west of the International Date Line, with an hour-long candlelighting at 7 p.m. As those candles burned out, the ceremony continued west, with each time zone lighting its candles as the previous ones burn out, creating a 24-hour wave of light to encircle the globe.
This is the 10th year of the event, considered the largest mass candlelighting in the world. Tens of thousands of families from all 50 states and more than a dozen countries worldwide were expected to participate.
