Gardens of Grace Startup Fund
Donation protected
Gardens of GRACE was born out of the loss of my daughter, Grace Neala Tamsin at the age of three, and her twin at 17 weeks gestation. Here is a little background about Grace, then a bit of an explanation of what our aims are. Feel free to creep my Facebook profile under Paula Harmon for a more detailed story, as I kept track of Grace's progress from the beginning.
Grace was born under dire circumstances at 26 weeks back in 2013. She was an unexpected, late in life surprise, and originally she was a twin. We found out early that the twin had the possibility of a Trisomy disorder, so if it survived to birth, would only live a short while. Due to a food borne illness that I contracted at 17 weeks, my water broke, the twin didn't survive, and Grace had a long haul at the Isaac Walton Killam Hospital before being released at seven and a half months old. Fast forward three years, and Grace is a happy, healthy, normal child, with only a bowel issue as a remnant from her NICU days, and even that had been downgraded in early December to just minor followup.
Then, December 28, we took Grace in to emergency with what EVERYONE thought was just another minor bacterial infection to her bowel, only to have her die 18 hours later. It turned out that, between a rare disorder that no one knew she had, and invisible scar tissue forming around her bowel that no imaging could detect, her bowel was compromised and caused her death.
Upon the advice of a grief councilor, I got away for awhile, so went to family in the UK. While there, I happened upon a couple of memorial gardens, one for premature infants, stillbirths and miscarriages, and another for organ and tissue donors and recipients, both that parents and families could add names to. Coming home, I wasn't really able to find anything similar, so, I guess you could say a cause of sorts was born.
I have been in contact with the IWK, our leading children's and women's hospital, a number of both former NICU mothers and bereaved mothers who have either had stillbirths or miscarriages, and other professionals who just feel the need to help.
We are in the early stages of forming an official group, and this is where YOU come in!
Our aims are to advocate for bereaved parents with the provincial hospitals and the government, as well as establish memorial gardens around the province where parents could name their lost children if they so wish...a VERY important part of the grieving process, when years down the road, families can acknowledge the fact publicly that their child WAS.
We also want to make miscarriage, stillbirth and child death something less of a taboo. We are in contact with the leading advocacy group in the UK, a group called SANDS, who have been around for 40 years...they will be aiding us in any way they can. We have also consulted with the leading group from Ontario, PAIL, on what they do, as they have traveled to England to train under SANDS.
One goal of our proposed gardens is to make them easily accessible...I am aware of a garden in PEI, but how many people can realistically visit something like that regularly...as well as non-denominational, AND accessible year round, so public parks that would be closed in winter would not be feasible, either. The other aims would be coordinating with local hospitals and councilling groups to improve access to both families and professionals, and improve how child death, still birth and miscarriage are dealt with in public, in the workplace, etc, bereavement photography, memory boxes...
While our garden application is in the works, our first tangible goal is in regards to International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, which is October 15. Elected MLA Tim Houston attempted to introduce a bill in the Nova Scotia legislature last year to recognize this day provincially, but unfortunately, the bill didn't go anywhere. He has been reelected, and I have been consulting with him to reintroduce the bill in the next sitting. The difference this year will be the effort we will be making to create a larger awareness of how serious this situation really is. Ontario has passed a groundbreaking Bill 141 that does just that, as well as putting a large amount of funding into research and care...we would like Nova Scotia to follow suit!
We will be approaching town councils around the province to ask them to make proclamations recognizing October 15, and we will try and get as many landmarks lit up in pink and blue as possible for the Wave of Light.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!! While ostensibly we would like funds to offset any number of costs, our first objective is to get branding and marketing funds, be able to set up a website, and get supplies to be able to promote how devastating pregnancy and infant loss is to families, and how those children need to be honored.
Grace was born under dire circumstances at 26 weeks back in 2013. She was an unexpected, late in life surprise, and originally she was a twin. We found out early that the twin had the possibility of a Trisomy disorder, so if it survived to birth, would only live a short while. Due to a food borne illness that I contracted at 17 weeks, my water broke, the twin didn't survive, and Grace had a long haul at the Isaac Walton Killam Hospital before being released at seven and a half months old. Fast forward three years, and Grace is a happy, healthy, normal child, with only a bowel issue as a remnant from her NICU days, and even that had been downgraded in early December to just minor followup.
Then, December 28, we took Grace in to emergency with what EVERYONE thought was just another minor bacterial infection to her bowel, only to have her die 18 hours later. It turned out that, between a rare disorder that no one knew she had, and invisible scar tissue forming around her bowel that no imaging could detect, her bowel was compromised and caused her death.
Upon the advice of a grief councilor, I got away for awhile, so went to family in the UK. While there, I happened upon a couple of memorial gardens, one for premature infants, stillbirths and miscarriages, and another for organ and tissue donors and recipients, both that parents and families could add names to. Coming home, I wasn't really able to find anything similar, so, I guess you could say a cause of sorts was born.
I have been in contact with the IWK, our leading children's and women's hospital, a number of both former NICU mothers and bereaved mothers who have either had stillbirths or miscarriages, and other professionals who just feel the need to help.
We are in the early stages of forming an official group, and this is where YOU come in!
Our aims are to advocate for bereaved parents with the provincial hospitals and the government, as well as establish memorial gardens around the province where parents could name their lost children if they so wish...a VERY important part of the grieving process, when years down the road, families can acknowledge the fact publicly that their child WAS.
We also want to make miscarriage, stillbirth and child death something less of a taboo. We are in contact with the leading advocacy group in the UK, a group called SANDS, who have been around for 40 years...they will be aiding us in any way they can. We have also consulted with the leading group from Ontario, PAIL, on what they do, as they have traveled to England to train under SANDS.
One goal of our proposed gardens is to make them easily accessible...I am aware of a garden in PEI, but how many people can realistically visit something like that regularly...as well as non-denominational, AND accessible year round, so public parks that would be closed in winter would not be feasible, either. The other aims would be coordinating with local hospitals and councilling groups to improve access to both families and professionals, and improve how child death, still birth and miscarriage are dealt with in public, in the workplace, etc, bereavement photography, memory boxes...
While our garden application is in the works, our first tangible goal is in regards to International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, which is October 15. Elected MLA Tim Houston attempted to introduce a bill in the Nova Scotia legislature last year to recognize this day provincially, but unfortunately, the bill didn't go anywhere. He has been reelected, and I have been consulting with him to reintroduce the bill in the next sitting. The difference this year will be the effort we will be making to create a larger awareness of how serious this situation really is. Ontario has passed a groundbreaking Bill 141 that does just that, as well as putting a large amount of funding into research and care...we would like Nova Scotia to follow suit!
We will be approaching town councils around the province to ask them to make proclamations recognizing October 15, and we will try and get as many landmarks lit up in pink and blue as possible for the Wave of Light.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!! While ostensibly we would like funds to offset any number of costs, our first objective is to get branding and marketing funds, be able to set up a website, and get supplies to be able to promote how devastating pregnancy and infant loss is to families, and how those children need to be honored.
Organizer
Paula Harmon
Organizer
Dartmouth, NS
