SICKENING
Evil trolls target mother’s event that remembers little ‘angels’ lost to miscarriage
Melissa and daughter Mia Melissa and her father Mark
Melissa Luttrell, 22, was left shocked at the hateful comments spewed by trolls in the run-up to the annual Light Up The Sky event she founded with her father Mark.
Their Facebook page was flooded with insults about the memorial rally which will see hundreds of people who have lost babies gather to remember their “angels”.
Lanterns and balloons will be released and although Melissa and Mark have sourced eco-friendly alternatives they are still being told they are “killing the environment”.
One troll wrote: “Just because your baby died doesn’t mean you can destroy the earth.”
Another said: “I’ve lost a child but I don’t go around killing the sealife and the wildlife.”
Melissa, from Tallaght in South Dublin, told the Irish Sunday Mirror: “They put up nasty comments about children that have passed away. One said, ‘Oh, I think what you’re doing is evil’.
“That is very hurtful to the parents who have lost babies through miscarriage or stillborn. “I went through my own heartache and to hear all this negative stuff is very upsetting.
“If anyone said anything directly about my baby I know I wouldn’t be able to hold my tongue.
That is very hurtful to the parents who have lost babies MELISSA LUTTRELL TALLAGHT YESTERDAY
CAMPAIGN
“We are doing all we can to protect the environment. We’ve offered to go to the beaches and collect balloons. We are sourcing bio balloons where possible.”
The hate campaign was especially difficult for Melissa, who is mum to three-year-old Mia, as August 6 would have been the due date of the child she lost in 2015.
The baby was nicknamed ‘Tic-tac” in the womb because it was so tiny – a name that will be read out with hundreds more at the event next Saturday.
The initiative to help bereaved parents has now gone global with spin-off events in Europe, Australia, South Africa and America.
But the level of abuse some organisers have had to face here has resulted in one of the balloon releases being cancelled.
Dad-of-seven Mark, who supported five of his children through miscarriage, said: “For some families this is the only way they have of remembering their little angels.
“With miscarriage there is nowhere for them to go, no grave, and a lot of parents just like to meet and talk to people going through the same thing.”
For more information visit www.facebook.com/light Up the Sky/ Tree of Angels.
news@irishmirror.ie