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COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS |
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Compassionate Friends 10th Annual Candle Lighting Dec. 9posted 12/07/2006 New Zealand is the first country to light candles beginning at 7 p.m. and lasting for one hour. At 7 p.m. in the next time zone, people light their candles and on it goes for 24 hours as the light shines around the world in memory of our children who have left this world before us. James Bryner will be the speaker this year. Kathleen Wilson and Tom Doenges will provide music. There will be a responsive reading and the names of the children from our local chapter will be read. At the conclusion of the ceremony everyone is invited to walk to Friday Harbor Realty lobby for refreshments. People are encouraged to bring photos and mementos of the children. One symbolic candle will stay lit until 8 p.m. If you are unable to attend you could participate by lighting a candle in your home during that period. Worldwide ceremony honors children | |
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posted 12/15/03
Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candlelighting Ceremony takes place at 7 p.m. on the second Sunday of December in every time zone in the world. This is the seventh year, the ceremony has been observed in Friday Harbor. Samantha Garl organized the event and read the Compassionate Friends Creed. She explained the gathering takes place at the corner of Spring and Second Streets in Friday Harbor where a tree was dedicated to the memory of all the children who have died. A plaque was installed six years ago. Garl invited Sheriff Bill Cumming to share the emotional toll the emergency service personnel experience from the death of a child. Cumming read a letter his wife Maude had written after she saw him in his patrol car transporting a child's body wrapped in a pink blanket. The child had died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Cumming ended his remarks by saying "we all need to take care of each other." Kathleen Wilson and Pat Gislason sang I Will Remember You and Let It Be. Jen Fleming read a list of children from San Juan Island who have died. Participants added names to the list including Ryan LoBue who died this year. The event wrapped up in the lobby of Coldwell Banker. Compassionate Friends CreedWe need not walk alone. We are the Compassionate Friends. We reach out to each other with love, with understanding and with hope. Our children have died at all ages and from many different causes, but our love for our children unites us. Your pain becomes my pain just as your hope becomes my hope. We come together from all walks of life, from many different circumstances. |
Sheriff Bill Cumming shared the emotional reactions emergency service personnel experience when dealing with the death of a child.
Samantha Garl read the Compassionate Friends creed. |
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We are a unique family because we represent many races and creeds. We are young, and we are old. Some of us are far along in our grief, but others still feel a grief so fresh and so intensely painful that we feel helpless and see no hope. Some of us have found our faith to be a source of strength; Some of us are struggling to find answers. Some of us are angry, filled with guilt or in deep depression; others radiate an inner peace. But whatever pain we bring to this gathering of The Compassionate Friends, it is pain we will share just as we share with each other our love for our children. We are all seeking and struggling to build a future for ourselves, but we are committed to building a future together as we reach out to each other in love and share the pain as well as the joy, share the anger as well as the peace, share the faith as well as the doubts and help each other to grieve as well as to grow. WE NEED NOT WALK ALONE WE ARE THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS. |
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