Grief over a baby who died before or soon after birth tends to be quiet grief. There's often no funeral, and coworkers may never have known about the pregnancy. Next Thursday, a Bloomington church is setting aside an evening for it.
Hillside Church, 4300 W. 98th St., will mark Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day with a program at 6:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15. Organizers said the evening is meant for people dealing with stillbirth, miscarriage, infant loss, SIDS, infertility and abortion. That's a wider list than many remembrance events use, and it makes room for people whose losses don't always get named in public.
The church's event listing calls the program "A Night of Remembrance." It's posted on the event's Facebook page, which is the best place to check for any updates before you go.
Hillside sits on West 98th Street, and most neighbors probably know it for its Sunday services at 9 and 10:45 a.m. More about the congregation is on the church's website.
Oct. 15 is the observance date nationally. The U.S. House passed a resolution in September 2006 recognizing Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. October as a whole had already been named Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month in a 1988 proclamation by President Ronald Reagan, and Robyn Bear, who founded the October 15th remembrance movement, picked the 15th as the day for remembering.
The day's best-known ritual is the "Wave of Light." Families everywhere are invited to light a candle at 7 p.m. local time on Oct. 15 and keep it burning for an hour, so the light moves around the globe one time zone after another. The idea, in the movement's words, is "a day to reflect on the loss yet embrace the love." Hillside's program starts 15 minutes before that local 7 p.m. moment, so even if you can't make it to 98th Street, a candle in your own window counts.
