Pastoral Services regularly invites back family and friends to remember the lives of loved ones lost in a ceremony in the hospital’s chapel. The attendees say the event is cathartic. “This is a place where people can heal in their grief journey,” says David Simmons, director of pastoral care services.
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I met Arvard when I was 19. He was good looking. He was charming. He was like my knight in shining armor.
We gather before you in this place, both to remember and to grieve our loved ones whose lives were so deeply entwined with our own. We confess that we miss them.
When you come back in here, we're welcoming you back into a place of healing. And part of healing is healing from the losses that we experience in our lives. And if we're going to be a place of healing, this is a place where I think people can heal in their grief journey.
And we remember Grace Idris, Sandra Coumaromy.
We find it's very important for people to-- people to hear their loved one named, and that someone outside of their own family honored this loss that means so much to them.
And we remember Arvard Brown.
But they remembered his name. That was the touching moment, when they remembered his name. This is like my final goodbye, and this is a way of saying he's at peace. And that's what I felt.
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