Parents come together to remember lost children

Just eight weeks ago, Deirdra Darr noticed something strange when she awoke.

Her unborn child Keenan's movements had stopped. In the last weeks of her pregnancy, this was cause for concern. Soon she learned the heartbreaking news: She was gone.

"At the beginning, it was a shock (learning of the death). But little by little, the grief set in," Darr said.

Darr joined roughly 400 people Sunday near the Riverwalk in Naperville for the Fourth Annual Walk to Remember. Most of the participants were parents and family members who have dealt with the grief of losing an unborn child.

Names of many of those children were read during an hourlong ceremony before the walk, and families were given roses in honor of the children.

Stephanie Fiore, one of the organizers, said she hopes to use the proceeds from Sunday's two-mile walk along the Riverwalk to help pay for a garden to be built on the Edward Hospital campus in memory of the children.

The group, consisting of parents in the Naperville hospital's support group for parents of stillborn children, has raised $127,000 in the last three years combined. Fiore said she hopes to bring in another $20,000 from Sunday's event.

"It will be a place for parents to pause and reflect," Fiore said.

Stephanie Soesbe of Naperville has been attending the annual walks for the last three years. The Naperville woman lost one of her two twins, Meryl Morgan, because of medical complications. Her other daughter, Ella, spent 92 days in the hospital before she could finally come home.

Bouncing around in the park before Sunday's event, three-year-old Ella seemed the perfect picture of health.

"Coming here is just a way to stop and remember," said Soesbe's husband, Nate. "Not that you ever forget."