Angel Baby Walk to Remember celebrates second year
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Angel Baby’s Walk to Remember returned for a second year this month and the trauma of losing a child never quite goes away.
The walk had about 60 people attending and founder Candace Loewen said she dreamt of doing the walk since 2011 when she lost her baby boy Flynn.
“When you lose a baby to miscarriage or stillbirth you feel so alone. It’s a very isolating journey. People who haven’t experienced it won’t understand that it’s life changing. You’ve lost a child so being able to gather with people really helps you to see that you’re not alone and it helps to validate the importance and impact that these little lives have made.”
One mother who shared her journey was Ashley Gerbrandt. She lost four babies in the span of three years. Her first child was born a healthy baby boy in 2017. Two years later at a 20-week checkup, Gerbrandt and her husband were told their second child had a severe and rare genetic disease and would not survive long after birth. They lost their third and fourth babies to miscarriage and stillbirth, respectively.
“One loss was shocking and devasting, two was disappointing and disheartening, three in a row felt like a cruel practical joke,” said Gerbrandt.
But the couple’s fifth pregnancy would see the Gerbrandts blessed with twins. But the news was bittersweet as one baby died after birth due to a genetic disease and the other was born healthy.
“Although we were overjoyed to have our little girl, old wounds had opened and it was a rough six weeks in the NICU seeing all the other tiny twins gain weight and go home waiting to get home ourselves and start healing all over again. Healing through telling our story and hearing other stories and healing through days like today where we can be together,” she said.
Gerbrandt said people joined the Walk to Remember because it’s a way to remember “the babies we are never going to see grow up and grieve what could have been. We walk to ease the loneliness and feel at home with others who have felt what we have felt. We walk to support other parents in what other stage of grief they may be in and how ever long ago they stared that endless journey.”
“Events like this are important because in reality no one else understands like we do. We need to care for each other. So thank you to Candace and Susan (Penner) and everyone behind this event. Thank you to everyone who came here who has experienced a loss who has come here to remember, and especially thank you to the village of people around us for supporting us it means more than you know.”
Oct. 15 is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day, and to celebrate it, social media users are asked to take a photo of a candle and post it on their social media accounts at 7 p.m. to create a 24-hour wave of light around the world.