About 900 people packed into the auditorium at the University of Houston’s Student Center South on the evening of December 8 to attend Texas Children’s Second Annual Candle Lighting Ceremony, which remembers, honors, mourns and celebrates the lives of children gone from this world too soon.
Hosted by Texas Children’s Palliative Care Team (PACT), the ceremony was held in conjunction with the Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting Day, which unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour at 7 p.m. on the second Sunday in December in memory of children who have passed away. All families whose children died and were patients at Texas Children’s Hospital were invited to attend.
Prior to the event, the 700 plus family members shared a meal while the 60 plus children played in designated childcare rooms. During the ceremony, a slide show of those lost gave faces and names to those who have died, as did a display of paper hearts hung on trees at the front of the auditorium. Attendees were encouraged to write their child’s name on the hearts. Texas Children’s Vice President of Nursing Heather Cherry welcomed attendees and Jan Wheeler, a parent with Project Joy & Hope, shared an honest and encouraging reflection of her experience losing a child. Toward the end of the ceremony, five candles were lit at the front of the room – one for grief, another for courage and the rest for memories, love and hope.
Taryn Schuelke, the grief and bereavement specialist with the Palliative Care team and ceremony chair, said she is pleased so many families attended second annual candle lighting.
“We are honored to have known these children and to be able to honor them. It means the world to the families that we remember their children,” she said. “We also are thankful to have so many people who are willing to help make such a special remembrance happen.”
Some of those people and organizations include:
- The Aleksandra Petra Mondlak Palliative Care Endowed Fund
- Texas Children’s Palliative Care Community and Psychosocial Services Endowed Fund
- Donor families and businesses
- Texas Medical Center Orchestra
- Texas Children’s Art Therapist Ashley Wood created the art used on all ceremony branding and the mural displaying the previous year’s paper hearts
- The Palliative Care Team’s Senior Administrative Assistant Lindsey Gurganious built the ceremony mantle and poured the large ceremony candle.
- Texas Children’s Spiritual Care Department
- The tea light display built by Chris Jones, husband of the Palliative Care Team’s Administrative Assistant Heather Jones.
- Texas Children’s music therapy volunteer Danh Nguyen who played guitar and lead the ceremony in song
- Several volunteers from the Volunteer Services Department
- Various local restaurants and florists
- More than 100 Texas Children’s Hospital staff volunteers and their families
The Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) is an interdisciplinary team comprised of attending physicians, physicians in training, advanced practice nurses, a nurse, chaplain, social worker, grief and bereavement specialist, research coordinator and administrators who work together to provide excellent palliative care to patients and their families across the Texas Children’s Institution.
The team is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide care in either the inpatient or outpatient setting in partnership with other health care providers. The team also supports staff. Just last year, the program earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for Palliative Care Certification, making Texas Children’s Palliative Care Program the first of its kind in Houston and one of only 90 across the United States to receive such a distinction. To learn more about the team, click here.