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SHARE walk helps families remember babies

Imagine snuggling your baby close but knowing she won't open her eyes, won't take a breath. Or that he will never curl up on your lap to hear you read a story, won't hold tight to your fingers as he learns to walk.

For you, the trip to the hospital isn't the beginning for your new baby, it's the beginning of your life without the baby who was born too soon or who complications took before or just after birth.

Your friends and family may never fully understand your experience, your grief.

But the members of the SHARE Program and Sharing HOPE at Edward Hospital know. They've felt your ever-present sense of loss, your guilt and fear as you continue forward and, maybe, face pregnancy again.

SHARE provides a community for parents who have experienced the loss of a child through miscarriage, stillbirth and early infant death, while Sharing HOPE brings together parents who are expecting again after such a loss.

The programs also seek to support couples as they experience their baby's death, offering counseling and advice and even encouraging families to take pictures and make memories of their too-brief time with their child. SHARE's Wings of Hope Angel Garden at Edward serves as a memorial to the babies who have died.

Each October, SHARE organizes the Walk to Remember. While the walk raises money to support SHARE's support services, it gives families the chance to publicly honor the babies who live only in their hearts.

This year's walk steps off at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 14, from the Riverwalk Grand Pavilion in Naperville. Among the walkers will be Anna Yang of Aurora and Gina Parker of Bolingbrook. Today, the women share their experiences.

Anna Yang, Aurora

Gina Parker, Bolingbrook

  In a memorial service before the Walk to Remember, the names of "angel babies" are read aloud and their parents are given a white rose to carry in their honor. Daniel White/dwhite@dailyherald.com, OCTOBER 2013

If you go

What: A Walk to Remember

Why: Proceeds support the SHARE Program at Edward Hospital

When: Registration at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 14; memorial ceremony at 9: a.m.; walk at 10:30 a.m.

Where: Riverwalk Grand Pavilion, 912 Sindt Court, Naperville

Cost: Fundraising encouraged

Info: eehealth.org, search "Walk to Remember"

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