Methodist Healthcare
October 14, 2010

10TH Annual Walk to be Held at Grotto Ministry Center on Blanco Road

WHAT:

This Saturday, October 16, San Antonians will gather for the 10th annual San Antonio Walk to Remember, an event remembering the babies who die each year through pregnancy loss, stillbirth or neonatal death. The Walk to Remember gives families the opportunity to grieve and gain closure. It also helps women who have not been able to deal with their grief—sometimes for years—begin to heal. The program starts with a ceremony of prayer, song and sharing and includes the dedication of a memorial tree. Attendees are encouraged to write notes to their babies to be planted with the tree. Afterward attendees join in a reflective stroll through the grounds of the Oblate Center. The Methodist Healthcare Perinatal Bereavement Committee founded the event. Co-sponsors are the Blue Bird Auxiliary of Methodist Hospital, Threads of Love/Sarah chapter, Stillbirth Collaborative Research Network, Artiquity and Pediatrix Medical Group, Inc.

WHEN:

Saturday, October 16. Registration at 9 a.m. with ceremony at 10 a.m. Best time for coverage is 10 to 11 a.m. Event goes on rain or shine.

WHERE:

Grotto Ministry Center, 5712 Blanco Road (one mile inside Loop 410)

STORY IDEAS AND VISUALS:

  • Moving ceremony. The ceremony and walk make moving visuals as parents leave notes, bracelets with their child’s name spelled in beads and other mementos at the memorial tree planting site.
  • Nurse Shares Her Grief and Empathy. Grace Dorsey, a nurse in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit at Methodist Children’s Hospital, has special empathy for mothers who have lost infant children since she lost a son in July 2008. Dorsey had remarried and though she and her husband had children from other marriages, they decided that they wanted a child of their own. In fact, Dorsey went through a procedure to reverse her tubal ligation. Entering the fifth month of her pregnancy, Dorsey lost her baby. A cyst growing on the back of the baby’s neck had stopped blood flow, resulting in death. She went through with the delivery and then had their son cremated. Dorsey says that she better understands the feelings of families in the NICU who lose infants. “Until you have gone through it yourself, it’s difficult to imagine the pain,” she said. “It is such a great loss…the anticipation, the dreams and the plans.” At the walk last year, Dorsey read poetry that she had written as part of her healing process. She will attend the walk on Saturday and be available for interviews.