The Grief Share Ministry at Kent Island Methodist Church raised funds to create a Bereaved Parents Memorial Garden in Stevensville Cemetery.
Grief Share was created by a church initiative and has a network of some 12,000 churches worldwide, with each Grief Share Ministry being independently sponsored. The local Grief Share Ministry, sponsored by KIUMC, has been in existence on Kent Island for more than five years. It depends on donations and a budget from KIUMC to operate its meetings. The group continues and currently offers the several support groups each week. One of those support groups is for parents who have suffered the death of a child.
The organization supports parents from Kent Island, Easton, Centreville, Denton and all surrounding towns and counties.
Members of the Grief Share Ministry hope the public will participate in the project and experience firsthand the pride members take in the program.
Plans call for benches, pavers, flowers, a water curtain and a marble weeping angel monument with the words “Our Precious Children Remembered” on it.
The garden is intended “to honor the lives of children who have left us too soon,” the organization stated. It will be “a place of peace, beauty, reflection and love … open to all who wish to visit.”