As Christmas approaches, bereaved parents gathered at a special church service to remember their loss.
About 100 parents and children gathered together in an annually memorial activity by the local charity for remembering children lost shortly after birth.
As Christmas comes closer, the local Stillbirth And Neonatal Death charity (SANDS) held the lights of love remembrance service at St Saviour’s Church last Friday for families and parents who have lost their babies.
The evening provided the opportunity for families to write a message for babies, singing, reading and praying.
Heatherjane Coombs, Welsh network coordinator for Sands“Services like this give parents who have moved on a little bit with their rainbow babies. It gives them a safe place to remember their babies in such a busy world. It gives them a permission to grieve and spend some time thinking about babies,” said Heatherjane Coombs, Welsh network coordinator for SANDS.
Jessica and Nathan, who lost their daughter in January, said that it was very tough to get through the hard period. “You never get over it. You have to accept from it and learn from it. When you feel sad, you are just sad and you just accept it. When you feel happy and just be happy. You can not exactly explain how your emotion was,” said Jessica.
Sam Knight, a SANDS volunteer, lost her nine-year-old daughter in 2011. “It was very tough time and it completely broke me and my family to be honest. SANDS got me through it and Heatherjane massively helped me. That’s the volunteer that I am doing for Sands. It helped me to learn to be tougher.”
Sam with her three children came from Bristol to work for this activity. They thought this memorial give parents support to get through it. This activity got the home closer and gave an opportunity to remember, to cry, to talk, and to feel.
Parents light a candle for their babies.Cardiff Newport SANDS was set up in 2010, which is a national stillbirth and neonatal death charity for supporting parents whom lost their babies. For more information about the event, see: https://www.cardiff-sands.co.uk/.