Beech Tree News Network

Morgantown, Kentucky  -  Grieving the deaths of children within their families, members of The Compassionate Friends (TCF) of Morgantown, a national self-help bereavement support organization, will join hundreds of thousands of families worldwide in lighting candles at 3 p.m. Sunday, December 9, 2018 as an act of symbolic remembrance. 

The local candle lighting will be part of a special service held at 3:00 pm at Morgantown Mission Ministry Building at 105 South Main Street in Morgantown, Kentucky and will feature music, readings, poems, special speaker. Annually tens of thousands of families, united in loss, light candles for one hour during the Worldwide Candle Lighting, held the second Sunday in December. Candles are first lit at 7 p.m., local time, just west of the International Date Line. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lighted in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light as the observance continues around the world.

Since 1997, the Worldwide Candle Lighting has been TCF’s gift to the bereavement community during the holiday season. This time of year can be a very trying time for those who are grieving the death of a child, no matter their age and no matter how long it has been since they died.  The 22^nd Worldwide Candle Lighting will bring together bereaved families around the entire world symbolically displaying the love that they have for all their children who will not be physically present. However, when each candle is lit, the light of that love will shine brightly in hundreds of thousands of bereaved hearts in all countries around the globe.

The members of TCF’s over 600 Chapters observe this day in various ways; although some are alone, or with family and friends, many participate in organized candle lighting programs. TCF invites everyone; whether they are grieving the personal loss of a child, all are welcome to join in this touching tribute. 

With the theme “…that their light may always shine,” the Worldwide Candle Lighting has grown larger every year with formal services last year in all 50 United States and Washington D.C., as well as many countries around the world. TCF’s national website, www.compassionatefriends.org, is expected to receive and post information on the services submitted to and listed on its website last year and more.  A Remembrance Book will be open for posts on the website, which will receive thousands of tributes from family members and other caring individuals.   

To contact The Compassionate Friends of Morgantown, call Debbie Young, Chapter Leader at 270 526-1045. For more information about the national organization and locations of its Chapters nationwide, call 877-969-0010 or visit TCF’s national website, www.compassionatefriends.org. The Compassionate Friends has a presence in at least 30 countries worldwide and is the world’s largest self-help bereavement organization.