Molly’s Burial

First off, I want to send my sincere congratulations to T-Girl on the birth of her first child, a daughter, last Wednesday, April 23! T-Girl was one of the first people to visit my blog, that I didn’t know before I started blogging, and reach out to me with encouraging comments. She was very supportive during all of our ART cycles and continued to be during our pregnancy and journey with Molly. T-Girl I am so happy for you and your sweet family of three! If you want to read about her daughter’s unexpected birth last week, you can read her post here: http://justwhenithoughtihaditall.blogspot.com/ T-Girl’s daughter has not been able to come home from the hospital yet, as she is in the NICU getting the medications she needs to help her lungs mature. Please keep her baby girl and their family in your thoughts and prayers.

As for me, thank you for your kind words about the picture I shared of our daughter Molly on the day she was born. I did post a few more pictures of Molly and our family from her birthday on her CarePage in the Photo Gallery section (http://www.carepages.com/ CarePage Name: BabyBenson2008), if you want to check them out. I am glad that so many of you enjoyed seeing a picture of Molly and found some of the joy and comfort that we do in being able to look at her sweet little face whenever we want, now that our baby girl has gone to Heaven.

Here are my memories from the day we buried our daughter last week:

Molly was buried on Monday, April 21 in the early afternoon at Holy Seplechure Cemetery, in Alsip, IL (a nearby southwest suburb of Chicago) where Bob’s paternal grandparents and great-grandparents are also buried.

When we first entered the chapel at the cemetery and I saw Molly’s casket, I was struck by how small it was. The funeral director had told us it would be awhile back, but I guess I forgot. I got emotional when I saw her casket and realized that our baby girl was in there, at least her body was.

Sean wanted to go over and check out Molly’s casket and so we did. It was a beautiful little white casket and had a heart embossed on top with the words “Loved and Cherished” written inside of it. When Sean saw me crying, while we looked at Molly’s casket, he told the funeral director “sometimes Mommy gets sad.” There was also a teddy bear in front of Molly’s casket that had a t-shirt on it with the same “Loved and Cherished” heart on it. The funeral director told us that we could bury Molly with the bear or keep it. We decided to keep it, since she already was being buried with the bear from Sean.

We ultimately decided to have Molly buried with the pink teddy bear from Sean, a picture that Sean made for Molly and gave her the day she was born, a blanket and hat that one of my dad’s friends knit for Molly, the cross that Molly’s Godparents my sister and her fiance gave us that said “Our Baby Girl,” a rosary bracelet from one of our neighbors and a palm that I had braided on Palm Sunday at mass this year, during Lent, while pregnant with Molly.

During Molly’s funeral/prayer service, our immediate family members gathered tightly around us and Molly’s casket. I sat in a chair with Sean on my lap and Bob stood next to us. Our parents, siblings, their spouses/fiancé and Bob’s maternal grandma were there with us. It meant so much to us to have them all there. I really broke down emotionally during the service and Sean was very cuddly on my lap. It really hit me that this was it, we were actually preparing to bury our daughter and I just kept picturing our beautiful baby girl Molly, as she looked when we saw her on Thursday, after she was born. I believe that her soul is now in Heaven, but I also knew her little body was in the casket in front of us.

Fr. Bill said that when he thinks about Molly, and our journey with her, that the word “gift” comes to mind. He spoke about how you have to give gifts away. Fr. Bill talked about how moved and touched he has been to be a part of our experience with and now farewell to Molly.

We prayed the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be together as part of the funeral service. The last time Bob and I had prayed that sequence of prayers with Fr. Bill, was in our room at the hospital before Molly was delivered. It was bitter sweet for me, as Molly was still alive, inside of me, the last time we did that together.

Fr. Bill asked if anyone had anything they wanted to add or share at one point during the service. Sean raised his hand and told us that he loves his favorite stuffed animal Polar Bear. I said how much it meant to us to have everyone there with us today and thanked our family for supporting us during our long journey with Molly. Bob’s mom said how she thought this experience brought us all together. My dad echoed what Bob’s mom said about our families growing closer. My sister shared her pride in being Molly’s Godmother and told about a magnolia tree, like one that we had in front of our first childhood home in Evanston, that she and her fiancé, who is Molly’s Godfather, have bought to plant in her memory at their home in their backyard.

After we left the chapel we caravanned with our family in our cars, following the funeral director, to the section where Molly was to be buried. It wasn’t the section we originally thought she was going to be buried in or by, but it seems that area must have filled up and so they dedicated a different section of the cemetery for babies. It was still a very beautiful area of the cemetery with a nice statue and Bible verse about Jesus and children.

Ironically, as we approached Molly’s grave site, Bob noticed and pointed out that a grave right next to Molly’s was for a little baby boy who was born/died on April 17, 2007, exactly one year before Molly was born/died. His grave site was decorated with all kinds of things, including a Cubs flag, as his first birthday/anniversary of his death would have been the previous Thursday, the same day Molly was born. Later we talked about how maybe we will meet his family someday, especially in future years on Molly’s birthday when we go to visit and they might be there too.

We brought 3 dozen pink roses to the cemetery and when we buried Molly, each of our family members placed one on top of her grave after it was filled in with dirt. Bob, Sean and I also each placed one of the pink roses in the grave, on top of her casket, before they filled it in.

After we buried Molly, we went back to Bob’s parents’ house and had a lovely dinner with both sides of our family. It was very relaxing and nice to spend time with everyone after what we had just been through together. There was a lot of yummy food too, which after having followed the gestational diabetes dietary guidelines for some time, towards the end of my pregnancy, it was nice to be able to indulge in.

On the way home from dinner, Sean said to us something about how he never got to feed Molly. We could tell that he was a bit sad, or at least disappointed, about this realization. We think that Molly’s death may be starting to set in with Sean on a different level than before. As much as he is happy that she is in Heaven with God, he seems to be remembering some of the things that he had looked forward to doing for and with his baby sister, including helping us to feed her someday. We were careful not say anything to Sean about us having another child someday, as we don’t know if and when that will every happen for our family. However we did talk about how maybe he could help his aunt and uncle feed their new baby after he or she is born later this summer and/or maybe he will also be able to help some of our friends who have babies or are expecting new babies when the time comes.

Later that day, as we were heading up to put Sean down for bed, he gathered his favorite stuffed animals which he sleeps with these days, including Polar Bear and his blue teddy bear (that coordinates with the pink one he gave Molly and that he wanted her buried with). As he picked up the new teddy bear, which we had been given by the funeral director earlier that day, Sean asked why we got to keep it. Bob replied that the bear was from Molly and that she wanted him to keep it and take care of it for her here in our home, just as Sean had given her the pink teddy bear that she had been buried with to keep and take care of in Heaven.

This was another very special and memorable day for our family and I am finding that these end of life rituals that we are going through to honor and always remember our daughter, seem to really be helping me to cope with and grieve the loss of our baby girl in what I feel to be a healthy way.