Group remembers lost children
The Compassionate Friends: Bereaved Parents Grief Support was founded in England 50 Years ago.
Whanganui was one of the first groups to meet in New Zealand and although it is a group no one wants to belong to, there is unfortunately a continuing need as families experience the death of a child, grandchild, brother or sister.
Every year for the past 23 years Compassionate Friend groups around the world have united for one night of the year for the annual Worldwide Candlelighting.
This is always held on the second Sunday in December at 7pm local time. It is believed to be the largest mass candle lighting in the world as time zones honour the memory of their children from 7pm to 8pm. As lights go out in one zone another takes over and for 24 hours a wave of light encircles the globe.
We in Aotearoa are the first to light our candles to honour our loved children.
The commemoration here always coincides with Whanganui’s Carols by Candlelight. This year we are grateful to Rotary for sharing the lake with us. We plan to meet beside the statue of Peter Pan, a beloved fictional character by JM Barrie, who can fly and lives in Neverland with the “lost boys” who fell out of their prams when their nurses were not looking. If the boys were not claimed within seven days they flew to Neverland with Peter. Peter explains there were no lost girls as they were too clever to fall out of their prams.
This delightful bronze statue beside the Virginia Lake edge, opposite the fountain, shows
Peter in a child-friendly defiant attitude, hands on hips, on a tree stump. Around the stump are the lost boys, woodland creatures plus some New Zealand fauna. The English sculptor Cecil Thomas created it in 1966 and it was “given for the enjoyment of citizens young and old of beautiful Wanganui by Frank and Eleanor Burnet”, unveiled by the then Governor-GeneralSir Bernard Fergusson. A lovely local touch is the delightful wee mice on the base of the statue, sculpted by Wanganui’s own Joan Bullock Morrell.
This will be an appropriate place for us to light candles in memory of “lost” children who have died too soon. Candles will be lit from 6.30pm, families are invited to light a candle for their loved one and then continue on to sing carols. Go right of the carpark towards the lake — follow the footprints. Group members will stay with the lit candles till 8pm.
Tree decorating is on Saturday, December 7 at midday. The Compassionate Friends Bereaved Parents Grief Support Group will also be at the Children’s Space at Aramoho Cemetery to place Christmas tree decorations, or wind chimes in the tree that shades that special area and at the Baby Loss Memorial Wall. Our group donated the bench that sits under the tree, a serene place to sit and ponder, regardless of where your child was laid to rest.
Families who have experienced the death of a child, grandchild, brother or sister from any cause; illness, accident or suicide, at any age; baby or adult, at any time are invited to join us or you may like to do this privately at another time.