Day 7 of 31 Days of Share during Octobers National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month: Message of Hope from a Bereaved Parent... One of my favorite photos in our house is also one of the saddest. It’s a picture of my wife Julia and I and our daughter Caroline, who was stillborn on December 12, 2006. Visitors remark that it is a lovely photograph of us and our now 3-year old daughter Elise, but then we explain we had another child and, unfortunately, we never got to know her. Losing a child, at any age, is a tragedy. It sets your life on a different path and you are left to figure out what to do and how to do it; especially when you experience a pregnancy loss or infant death because the physical and emotional impact is often misunderstood. Thankfully, there are people who do understand and can help. Share Pregnancy and Infant Loss Support, Inc. makes a positive difference every day in the lives of bereaved parents, grandparents, friends and family members. We came to know Share in our time of greatest need and were lifted up by the compassion, the wisdom and welcoming nature of its volunteers. When Caroline was stillborn at 28 weeks, we were living in France, thousands of miles away from friends and family, struggling with a language we weren’t familiar with and a loss we could not comprehend. Thanks to Share and its website, we connected with people who had been through what we were going through. They provided us important information about child loss that we couldn’t get anywhere else. They let us cry. They understood our grief. They offered helpful ways to keep Caroline’s memory alive. They shared. With the support of Share, we persevered. As blessed as we are to have Elise, we were reminded earlier this year how fragile life when we experienced a miscarriage. Share volunteers stood by us yet again in our time of grief. I do not know what would have happened without Share in our life, and that’s why we do what we can to ensure no one walks this tough road alone. - Brian Henry, bereaved parent and Share Board Member For stories from other bereaved parents, visit https://youtube/watch?v=WOiB0nyZT5c
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 14:00:00 +0000