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Reflecting on ‘A Walk to Remember’

November 1, 2024

On Sunday 27 October, bereaved families in our community came together to participate in A Walk to Remember.

 

This event was centred around community, connection, legacy and paying tribute to the beautiful children and young people who live on in our memories.

 

We are so grateful to all who attended and contributed to this special event in Malvern. One mum, Kath, shared a beautiful reflection of the day and what it meant to her family.

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I can’t describe all my feelings in words about yesterday but let’s just say I felt it was a magical and very special day.

 

Definitely a hard day and brought up a lot of different emotions and today I feel I’ve kept reflecting most of the day as well as talking out loud to Lucie beside her grave. I’ve been fairly closed up since she died and have tried to just put on a brave face.

 

Walking around the gardens helped me just to breathe and reminded me a lot of Leunig’s cartoon of sitting by a tree.

 

It really made me think about how I spent so many of the COVID days just walking with the girls in the Bugaboo pram and looking at nature as I walked.

 

I had forgotten how much it helped me in the early days.

 

The choir was just beautiful. They were just so relaxing and I loved the choice of songs.

 

The activities set out for the families and children were absolutely wonderful. The time, thought, organisation and dedication this must have taken is huge. The beautiful clay table was so gorgeous and Ana enjoyed this a lot. I loved the nature table and being able to choose some beautiful flowers and nature items for our child was really special. The activities for the children and families scattered around were so much fun. We couldn’t get Ana to leave!

 

The volunteers are such amazing people and were so focused on having ‘fun’ with all the siblings and families.

 

The food was so delicious and we were not expecting so much catering. We were so full but somehow kept on eating as it was so yummy!! Thank you for catering for us picky gluten free people! My dad couldn’t stop talking about the organisation all the way home and he was like a little kid going in to tell my mum all about the day!

 

We were never hesitant about coming to A Walk to Remember as we feel so comfortable at Very Special Kids. Even though we have very ‘sad’ memories about Lucie’s end-of-life at the hospice, we also have happiness sitting beside it as well, as we were all treated like royalty during that time.

Even though it’s early days for us we feel Lucie around us everywhere we go and we wanted to honour her yesterday. Ana said on the way home ‘when can we go back to Very Special Kids I love it so much’.

Everyone was so truly devoted to what they do and had a greater understanding of imagining what it must be like to go through such heartbreak and devastation as what losing a child must be like. We all hear ‘I can’t imagine’ but I really feel the staff all try to imagine what it must feel like by listening to all the families and making the best Walk to Remember day for everyone.

 

Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts. You are absolutely amazing people and we love you all.

 

 – Family of our beautiful Lucie