August 19th is the international Day of Hope Prayer Flag Project. This beautiful day of remembrance was created by Carly Marie, who is the mama of a stillborn baby boy named Christian. Here are some words about this day from Carly's website: "It is a
day of speaking out aloud about the babies and children that are no
longer here. It is a day healing and a day of HOPE. August 19th breaks
the silence surrounding the death of babies and children."
In honor of this day of HOPE, people all over the world created "Prayer Flags" in honor of babies gone too soon from this Earth. My mother and I participated by making flags for Jonah, each one lovingly made in our own style.
I brought the flag I made for Jonah to Beverly Hills Memorial Gardens, where he is buried, and took so many lovely photos - trying to capture his flag and all the meaning behind it on this beautiful day in August.
Thank you Carly Marie and Project Heal for making this day of HOPE, this day of PEACE, and this day of REMEMBRANCE.
This is what I posted to Facebook along with a photo of Jonah's prayer flag:
My mom and dad are leather crafters. This is the leather prayer flag my mama created.
Here are the words my mom posted to Facebook describing her flag:
Jonah
was born on May 12, 2012 at 25 weeks. His sudden arrival left us
hopeful that our 2 lb.3 oz baby boy would live and grow, but after 47
hours his life came to an end leaving us with a sadness deeper than the
ocean. Now over a year has gone by, and I want to remember our first
born grandchild with a special prayer flag made of leather. I have been
a leather worker for 40 years and I have wanted
to make something special in this medium. Around his birth date, I
punched 47 holes; each representing the hours that Jonah was physically
with us. The hole in the heart was a natural flaw in this piece of
leather so I made a heart around the hole to represent the loss we feel.
Butterflies have become his symbol as on the day of his funeral and
many other occasions henceforth, we have been visited by butterflies.
Each symbol has special meaning to our family and each hour spent making
the prayer flag gave me a chance to ponder the fragility of life and
the deep connection between a mother and her child no matter the amount
of time one has together.
I hope Jonah's prayer flag brought the same kind of peace and comfort to your hearts as it did ours. To learn more about the Day of Hope and to see prayer flags made by families all over the world, please visit August 19th - Day of Hope: The Prayer Flag Project
