TERRE HAUTE —
Candlelight circled the globe Sunday evening, passing through Terre Haute as families remembered children lost.
The Compassionate Friends’ 15th Annual “Worldwide Candle Lighting” brightened the sanctuary inside Terre Haute’s Unitarian Universalist Church as about 50 participants continued a chain of light beginning in New Zealand. In each time zone around the world, participants lit candles at their own 7 p.m. mark, honoring children who have died.
Cindy McClain, chapter leader of the Compassionate Friends of the Wabash Valley, said attendance was strong this year, the second for the local group to participate.
Founded in 1969, Compassionate Friends is an international self-help, mutual assistance organization for bereaved parents and families.
With more than 600 chapters in the United States, the organization’s twofold mission is to assist families toward a positive resolution of grief following the death of a child, and to provide information which encourages others to be supportive.
McClain’s son, Dylan, died in 2007, and she read his name aloud as she lit her own candle.
The local chapter has about a dozen core members, with others coming and going, she said after the ceremony.
“We’ve gotten to be really good friends,” she said of the local support group’s members. The organization gently offers itself up to grieving parents throughout the community, and McClain said new additions are all too common. “You never know when somebody’s going to come.”
An alter lined with candles shed light on a table full of pictures. From toddlers to soldiers, parents said the pain of losing a child, of any age, is impossible to fully shake.
Pam Bird carried a candle for her own son, Cameron Langenfeld, a Riley Elementary School student killed while riding his bicycle in 2007.
“This is the first year I’ve been to this one. It means an awful lot to anyone who has lost a child,” she said of Sunday evening’s service.
Support groups and grief are nothing new to any parent subjected to the loss of a child, she said, explaining those families need a safe place to talk and share. Meanwhile, the public needs to be aware that the death of a child is not something one ever gets over.
“It’s 24/7 the rest of your life,” she said.
During the ceremony, Mayor Duke Bennett proclaimed Dec. 11, 2011, to be “Children’s Memorial Worldwide Candle Lighting Day.”
Every year in the United States nearly 150,000 infants, children, teens and young adults die, and countless tens of thousands are born still or are miscarried, Bennett said, recognizing the contributions made by the Compassionate Friends organization in helping with grief.
Cathie Laska’s daughter died five years ago, and she said while most people want to be sympathetic to grieving parents, it’s impossible to understand the feelings without the experience.
“It’s a really good support group,” she said of the local chapter.
Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.
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