Garden of Hope Memorial unveiled at Southfield Catholic cemetery on Annual Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children
SOUTHFIELD — Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Southfield unveiled and dedicated a new memorial to honor children lost during pregnancy, childbirth and abortion as well as their mothers Sept. 13, during the 13th annual National Day of Remembrance for Aborted Children.
The newly unveiled Garden of Hope Memorial is part of an international ministry that began in Grand Rapids to help bring comfort and healing to those who have experienced the loss of a child. Identical memorial statues, designed by artist Beverly Paddleford, can be found across the United States, Canada and Romania.
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“(Paddleford) designed this statue, titled ‘Hope,’ of Jesus cradling a baby in his arms, comforting a mother who is sitting next to him and holding her hand,” said Deanna Cortese, outreach director for Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services in the Archdiocese of Detroit. “The mother is holding a heart necklace, and there is a seat next to the woman that is designed for someone to find comfort in sitting with this statue.”
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery was not the original intended recipient of the memorial statue, Cortese said — it was intended to be sent to Ukraine, but was stopped at the border and sent back to the United States. Upon its return, Cortese said a new plan was developed.
Cortese worked in partnership with Kathleen Wilson, the Archdiocese of Detroit's Respect Life coordinator, and volunteers at the Oxford Pregnancy Center in Oxford to make the memorial a reality.
“Losing a child is scientifically proven to be one of the most stressful things an individual can go through,” Cortese told Detroit Catholic. ”With the knowledge of the grief journey that these families go through, we felt that Holy Sepulchre would be a beautiful place to offer this garden of hope.”
While the memorials were initially designed for post-abortive healing, Cortese said the space will be used as a memorial for all infant losses.
“Since 2013, we have buried over 500 children through our Precious Lives program at no cost to families,” Cortese added. “When we started talking about the memorial, we certainly wanted to support these post-abortive women who found healing in this, but we also wanted to honor all of the children that were lost, no matter how the loss happened.”
In addition to the statue, Cortese said a monument bearing each child’s name will also be unveiled.
“One of the things that we discovered is that many women who either had early miscarriages or post-abortive women never named their child, so part of the garden is a monument where families have actually been able to give their child a name,” Cortese said.
At its unveiling, more than 200 children's names will be part of the memorial, and Catholic Funeral and Cemetery Services will continue to gather names and update the monument each year, Cortese said.
During the memorial dedication Sept. 13, families in attendance heard their children’s names read aloud and participated in a candle lighting, a butterfly release and a blessing led by retired Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Donald F. Hanchon. Speakers shared their testimonies of child loss, both from miscarriage and abortion, Cortese added.
“The memorial is a pretty powerful symbol of the sanctity and dignity of life from conception to birth,” Cortese said. “Through all of the speakers and all of the testimonies, they were all just parents who were grieving the loss of their child, and it was just a community together praying for one another, supporting one another. This community of strangers left as a group of friends.”
