God had
many purposes in mind when He called us to build this special place,
The Children's Park. We want others to have the opportunity to
share and hear some of the amazing stories. If you have been
touched by the park in some way and would like to share your
thoughts and/or story, please scroll to the bottom of this page and
complete the necessary information.
Kellie
The Children's Park meaning to me is very complicated. It is a meaning of life
and death. It is a meaning of a begining and a end. It is a meaning of a
happiness and sadness. I always go to the park with my son and still to young
to know the true meaning himself he is just a child when he there. And watching
him be a child is exactly what the park is for me. I remember the life of my
child that is no longer here and others children, and thank God we have
somewhere so beautiful for all the world come to remember children not with us
anymore. I think the park means different things to everyone and maybe that is
the way it should be. It should mean to you what it needs to mean to you.
Carolyn
I just want to thank you all for the creation of the Children's Park. My husband and I visited a couple of weeks ago and found it to be a peaceful place in which we could remember and honour children. Thank you.
Baby Jill - Luci
In 1951, my grandmother gave birth to her third child, a baby girl born with spina bifida. Six weeks later, the baby died.
When I first heard about the Children's Park, I thought, "What a special place for people who have lost a child." Then I realized that it wasn't just for those who had recently lost a child. So, for Christmas 2004, my grandmother's children and grandchildren gave her an engraved sidewalk stone at the Children's Park , to honor the memory of her baby who died 53 years before. It is the most meaningful gift we could ever give her. She later told me that she had always wanted to find a way to publicly remember Baby Jill, in some way, other than the gravestone at the cemetery.
After the stone was placed, I took my grandmother to the Children's Park to see it. It was the first time she had ever been there. She said that, when she was attending Hogg Junior High School in the late 1930's, she never would have dreamed that the "hole in the ground" just to the north of the school would someday become such a meaningful place to her .
An Unexpected Moment - Dawn
Almost every Monday I leave my Rotary meeting at the Women’s Building and turn south going down Broadway. Today, for absolutely no known reason I drove across Broadway and into the parking lot of the Children’s Park. I wondered if any flowers were in bloom. There were several cars there already and adults and children in the park.
Through my rear view mirror I noticed a van across the parking lot, where two children and a mother were standing. The mother was carefully dividing a bouquet of flowers between the two small children (maybe four and five years old). Mother was holding a third child in her arms.
I just sat in my Escape and watched as they went down into the park. She stopped to read several signs and then they walked to the west side of the circle path around the girl statue. There the children stopped to place their flowers and then they all stood quietly listening to their mother. Perhaps she was praying, or just remembering.
After a few minutes they all walked on around the circle and the children skipped and ran to a spot to play.
I was so moved by the moment that even now as I write this I need a Kleenex.
I drove away wondering why they put the flowers there and not at the cemetery – and I realize that even as I write this that there are many possible answers to my question.
The best part of all this was that the children were able to have a moment to honor the memory of a lost loved one and then go on to play, because after all that is what children do best – and the job that God has given them to do.
Today I saw a complete picture of the Children’s Park. Today I felt the Children’s Park and what it must mean to so many.
I’m so thankful I was given the opportunity and gift of being a part of it coming to fruition.
God is very good.
Pam Davis
Working with people who’ve lost a child, I’m often asked how long it takes to heal…
Recently my mother-in-law asked me to “celebrate” Zack’s 21st birthday with her and my two sister-in-laws with a visit to his grave in Colleyville and a “girls” weekend. I was hurt when asked because I could rarely recall, if ever, discussing Zack with my sister-in-laws, and seldom with my mother-in-law. I was also offended because to me a girls weekend of fun and frolic didn’t involve anything that celebrated Zack’s life.
Having moved away from Tyler, we have not had the opportunity to visit the new Children’s Park except through the website. We were recently in Tyler and got our first opportunity to visit. I invited my mother-in-law along thinking I would share with her how I felt about celebrating Zack’s birthday. She didn’t know where we were going and was surprised when we rolled into the parking lot. She thought the park had been built with funds raised by the school children across the street. As we began our stroll I told her we were going to visit Zack and began to tell her the story of the park and Glory Babies. You see, we’d mentioned our involvement in Glory Babies to them and had invited them to previous annual remembrance walks with what we’d perceived as not much interest on their part. But as we talked, I realized because they’d not asked much about it, we failed to share with them completely what Glory Babies truly meant to us. As we walked along and read the children’s names and marveled at the butterflies that Saturday, we ended up shedding some tears and sharing a lot of things left unsaid over the last 21 years. Things not said, not necessarily because no one cared, but because no one knew how to begin. As we left the park, we each had received long withheld healing and a new plan for celebrating Zack’s birthday. Craig’s family would represent Zack at the Walk the first weekend in October. Having never been to one of Glory Babies remembrance walks, I know that Craig’s family will celebrate Zack’s life in a way they never expected and receive a blessing far greater than a visit to a tombstone and a “girls” weekend could ever bring them.
As we walked up the incline to the parking lot I had the eeriest feeling. As I turned back towards the park I heard children’s laughter on the wind that quietly blew through the park, the patter of their feet as they splashed through the water and their giggles in the flutter of the butterflies wings and I realized that you never completely heal from losing a child, you just find new ways to “hold” your child. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Ecc3:1
