Join in Remembering Children: The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting
The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor the memories of the sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, and grandchildren who left too soon. As candles are lit at 7:00 p.m. local time, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of all children gone too soon.
Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the 19th annual Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance, but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.
The Compassionate Friends and allied organizations are joined by local bereavement groups, churches, funeral homes, hospitals, hospices, children’s gardens, schools, cemeteries, and community centers. Services have ranged in size from just a few people to nearly a thousand.
Every year you are invited to post a message in the Remembrance Book which will be available, during the event, at TCF’s national website. The Worldwide Candle Lighting gives bereaved families everywhere the opportunity to remember and honor their children.
May their lights always shine!
We invite you to join us at Pliney Park, corner of High and Main Streets, December 13, 2015 – 7:00-8:00PM
For more information, call 802-490-2326
Or email: bevermont@gmail.com
Try to arrive by 6:45 with your candle.
The Compassionate Friends of Brattleboro meets every 3rd Sunday of the month from 2:00 to 4:00 PM. If you are a bereaved parent, grandparent, sibling please join us. Call 802-490-2326 for more information.
Thank you, Compassionate Friends
The death of a child is an unthinkable loss. Even well-meant words of condolence may feel like a slap on a third-degree burn,
When our daughter, Ember, died at birth 30 years ago, it felt uncomprehensible that we could continue with our own lives. My wife, Donna, and I were fortunate to find a Compassionate Friends support group. At that time the closest Compassionate Friends group met in Jaffrey. Sometimes it felt like desperately needy people who could barely make it themselves, trying to help each other. Faced with the pain of unbearable loss, no support is adequate, but at least the kindness and understanding that we found from other bereaved parents kept hope alive.
Having a Compassionate Friends group in Brattleboro, is wonderful.
The Compassionate Friends
Dear SK-B-yes,all the well meant words of condolence can’t do for us what we really want-to have our children back, here in their bodies on this earth with us and yet I have to say to you how much I ached for you and your Ember when I read your comment. I am truly sorry. There is no lessening of the bottomless grief from “the worst loss” that words can bring but sharing our stories at least makes us know we are not alone. Thank you for sharing yours and maybe we’ll meet at The Compassionate Friends group…Blessings and Peace, Beverly