Remember Children Who Have Died with Candle Lighting Ceremony This Sunday in Eureka

Press release from the Compassionate Friends:

The death of a child is devastating and it is important to the family that the child always be remembered.  The Humboldt County Chapter of The Compassionate Friends (TCF) is joining Sunday December 8, with hundreds of organized memorial services around the world for The Compassionate Friends 23th annual Worldwide Candle Lighting, an event believed to be the largest mass candle lighting in the world.  TCF is a national self-help support organization for families after a child dies.

The local candle lighting will be at 5:45 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 819 15th Street, Eureka, and will feature music, readings, and speaker, John Gai.  Annually tens of thousands of families, united in loss, light candles for one hour during The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting® held the second Sunday in December. Candles are first lit at 7 p.m., local time, just west of the International Date Line. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lit in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light as the observance continues around the world.  

The holiday time is especially difficult for families suffering from the loss of a child. The Worldwide Candle Lighting is one way we can show we are united with bereaved families everywhere in the love we continue to carry for our children, even though they are no longer with us.

In the United States, members of our more than 650 chapters observe this day in differing ways, some alone, some with friends and family, and many in organized candle lighting ceremonies. We invite everyone, whether or not they have suffered the personal loss of a child, to join in this moving tribute.” 

With the theme “…that their light may always shine,” the Worldwide Candle Lighting has grown larger every year with formal services last year in all 50 United States and Washington D.C., as well as at least 19 countries around the world. TCF’s national website, www.compassionatefriends.org, is expected to receive and post information on more than the 550 services.  The website will also have open for posts a Remembrance Book December 8, which in a 24-hour period will receive thousands of tributes from family members and other caring individuals. 

To contact the Humboldt County Chapter of TCF, call Anne Wade at (415) 244-7199. For more information about the national organization and locations of its chapters nationwide, call toll-free 

(877) 969-0010 or visit TCF’s national website. The Compassionate Friends has chapters in 30 countries and is the world’s largest self-help bereavement organization.