Walk remembers stillborn babies
When Marcia Matson is asked when her son, Justin, was stillborn, she doesn't hesitate with her answer.
Sept. 18, 2003.
The date is permanently etched in her memory.
"I have a condition called an incompetent cervix," she said, explaining that the problem led to her son's delivery after just 22 weeks.
To work through her feelings, she joined a support group at Edward Hospital. Known as SHARE, it's part of a nationwide network of support groups that help families deal with miscarriage, stillbirth and neonatal loss.
After a few months, she became pregnant again and all went well. Daughter Delaney was born three years ago.
But her son has not been forgotten.
"You don't ever forget," she said. "You do move on."
Though she no longer attends SHARE meetings, Matson continues to honor the memory of her son. And she continues to help others get through such heartbreaking events.
On Saturday, Matson will be one of about 12 walk coordinators organizing the third annual Walk to Remember, a fundraiser along Naperville's Riverwalk that will help establish a memorial garden at Edward Hospital.
"All of the walk coordinators have experienced a loss. Most of us had stillbirths," she said. "You don't realize how common it is until it happens to you."
Walkers will follow a 2-mile route that begins and ends at the Grand Pavilion on the Riverwalk's west end. Matson said organizers hope to raise about $20,000, the amount raised in each of the two previous walks.
The funds will aid Edward Hospital Foundation's efforts to build an outdoor memorial garden called the Wings of Hope Angel Garden on the hospital campus at an estimated cost of $275,000, she said.
"It'll be a place to reflect and give people hope," said Matson, adding that planners hope to break ground on the project next spring.
The project got a head start when Hitchcock Design of Naperville donated architectural services, said Edward Hospital Foundation Executive Director Janet Haines.
The garden will offer a number of opportunities for donors to recognize and remember loved ones with inscriptions and other memorials, Haines said.
"To me, it'll be a quiet place of reflection and renewal," she said. "There's going to be a water fountain featured and three separate gardens."
Saturday's walk will be preceded by a memorial service and a speech by author Linda DeYmaz, who wrote "Mommy, Please Don't Cry," after her daughter, Alexandra Grace, was stillborn in 1995.
"We've asked her to focus on what got her through," Matson said.
Matson said her family, her support group and the fact that she needed to shift her focus to her new pregnancy helped her cope with the loss of her son.
The walk, she said, is intended not only to raise money to fund the new garden, but to raise awareness and to remember the children who didn't survive pregnancy or infancy.
"The walk is there," she said, "to walk the steps they'll never take."
If you go
What: Third annual Walk to Remember, organized by Naperville SHARE chapter and Edward Hospital Foundation
When: Registration at 8:15 a.m. Saturday; memorial service at 9:30 a.m.; walk begins at 10:15 a.m.
Where: Grand Pavilion, Naperville Riverwalk
Registration: $25 for adults, $15 for children
Info: (630) 966-9535 or napervillewalktoremember.org