In the News

Golden Palms Residents, Valley Baptist Volunteers Create Memory Boxes for Parents who Lose their Baby

HARLINGEN, March 22, 2006  – Residents of Golden Palms Retirement Center in Harlingen are using their creativity to touch people’s lives by creating hand-crafted “memory boxes” that will be given to local families of newborn infants who die in the hospital or are stillborn.

Through a partnership with Volunteer Services and Women’s Services at Valley Baptist Medical Center–Harlingen, and with the help of Frances Wong, a Harlingen Junior League Volunteer, Golden Palms residents have dedicated much of their time and their talent to the creation of Bereavement Memory Boxes. Each box is painted with great love and a heartfelt wish to reach out in support and understanding.

This has been an ongoing project that residents at Golden Palms chose to take on as a way to reflect their understanding for the families who have lost a child. Residents have hand-painted unique designs on each box two times a week during their art classes at Golden Palms.

In the meantime, Auxiliary Volunteers at VBMC–Harlingen have worked on completing the contents of each box. The boxes will be filled with small mementoes that will include hand-made baby gowns, bonnets, blankets, a memory pillow, and mother and daddy handkerchiefs. Each box will be given as a gift for families who would otherwise leave the hospital empty-handed.

The memory box project is part of the National Mother-Baby “Resolve Through Sharing” program that will be launched at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen after an RTS Bereavement Training Conference which will be held April 19-21 at VBMC’s Woodward Conference Center. The conference, which will help health professionals improve their skills to assist bereaved families, offers continuing education credits for nurses, social workers and chaplains. Health care professionals and chaplains who would like more information or who would like to register for the training can call 1-800-362-9567, ext. 54747.

All volunteers who have been working on the memory boxes and its contents had the opportunity to personally meet each other on March 20 to see samples of the completed Bereavement Memory Boxes and to jointly celebrate their gift to grieving parents.

“We understand that we cannot help these families through the tremendous loss, but we can give them a small gift to hold the things that touched their child,” said K.D. Potts, Executive Director of Golden Palms Retirement and Health Center. “It is in this way that we will be able to reach out to them with comfort and support.”

Golden Palms residents plan to continue painting the Memory Boxes and will keep contributing to this wonderful cause.