Today, I want to share with you some of the photos and
details of my little Juby’s Memorial Service.
The funeral director was lovely and allowed me to organise
the service exactly how I wanted it: he sent me a template and I was allowed to
order it how I like, delete the parts I didn’t like and just make it personal,
short and focussed on happy things instead of all the grief. It was still sad:
like they say, no one should have to bury their own child but it was the most
beautiful celebration that we could have hoped for.
I wore a little white dress I had worn whilst pregnant at
Christmas. I wanted it to symbolise her purity and innocence. I also made the
Memorial booklets and tied white raffia and pink cotton through them. It was so
special to have our immediate family members present.
During the service, we carried the coffin in, had Psalm 139
read out, lowered the coffin on our own, placed rose petals on the coffin and
released some pink and white balloons into Heaven. We also had ‘our song’ (Without You by Keith Urban) played whilst we
released the balloons. Adam and I loved this song when it came out not long
after our wedding in April last year. We have it in the car and play it for
each other whenever one is upset or we have been fighting- it always makes us
smile and remember we are so thankful for the gift of each other- and whenever
it is on, we can’t help but sing along. In the hospital, a midwife who deals
especially with neo-natal death suggested that we choose a song for our baby
and straight away I thought of this, as the second verse starts with:
“Along come a baby girl, and suddenly my little world just
got a whole bigger.”
And later, in the bridge:
"Without you I'd survive but I'd have to have notion, That I could live this life, just going through the motions."
It has become really special for us and now even more so
with the birth of our own baby girl. We also liked it because it talked about
our love for each other which has only grown and deepened through this whole
journey.
As part of the service, we read out a letter that we wrote
to Jubilee. It was so hard to write and my husband and I just cried the whole
time, but we were brave reading it out on the day. I started and then we read
each verse alternatively:
Dear
Jubilee,
Today, we lay your precious little body to rest, full knowing that you are already with Jesus in heaven and watching over us
each day.
In the short time that we spent with you, we knew we had a little fighter on our hands. You were strong and held out till the end of your life on this earth.
From 6 weeks, I could
feel you moving inside me. This was the greatest
privilege, as your movements were a constant source of reassurance to me of the
hope that as long as I had you, everything was going
to be okay.
We would have loved
to see you run around and giggle and pass through
life’s important milestones, however, God’s plans for you
must be much, much bigger than we can imagine.
On the day of your
birth, we were so overwhelmed by just how beautiful
and perfect you were. What we cherish the
most is how your life, despite its briefness, has taught us both so
much about what it is to love and made us more in love with each other.
Through your
deliverance into heaven, you have also helped
us to grow in our faith and to rejoice in the storms of life and so we named
you Jubilee, a special name we
chose just for you, which means to rejoice.
We are constantly
thinking of you and we already miss you so much. Our memories of you,
our little Juby, will be forever in
our hearts.
Love always, Mummy and Daddy
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