The 31st annual Memory Tree Celebration is fast approaching.
Run by the 100 Mile District Hospice Palliative Care Society, the event is an opportunity for people to remember lost loved ones and grieve for them. Hospice executive director Tracy Haddow said the celebration takes place at the 100 Mile Community Hall on Friday, Dec. 9 at 6 p.m.
“It’s a good opportunity to come and honour your memories and process your feelings,” Haddow said. “We’ll have some songs, some poems and some readings and it will be a really nice time to come and gather.”
Each year upwards of 40 people gather to listen to poems and songs that touch upon grief and listen to the names of those being remembered. As each name is read, a member of hospice or one of those in attendance will go up and screw a lightbulb into the memory tree symbolically lighting it up.
Haddow said that if you want your departed loved one’s name to be read during the ceremony you have to register them beforehand. She said people can do this online at 100miledistricthospice.org or in person at BJ’s Donuts, Didi’s Boutique, Pharmasave and Donex Pharmacy.
Members of hospice will also set up tables at community events in the coming weeks including at the 108 Mile Community Hall on Friday, Dec. 3 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the 100 Mile Community Hall on Dec. 3 and 4 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. respectively.
Haddow invites the entire community to attend the celebration as part of their Christmas traditions.
“People come every year, they enjoy it so much because it becomes a part of their Christmas traditions. It doesn’t matter how long ago you lost someone, we don’t forget people that we loved,” Haddow said. “It’s a really beautiful way to remember and to honour them.”
patrick.davies@100milefreepress.net
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