Molly at Sunset

Awhile back I found out that Carly Dudley from Christian’s Beach was emailing high quality .jpg files of the pictures she takes of bereaved families’ children’s names in the sand to those who requested them for a small fee. I realized since our baby girl Molly’s name was written over three years ago, within the first few months Carly and her husband Sam began this awesome ministry for grieving families, that I had never given them any compensation for the beautiful photo they took for us with our daughter’s name written in the sand at sunset on the beach near their home in Perth, Australia.

I know that they do not do this for the money, but there are costs associated with being able to continue to do this for bereaved families. Also knowing that I had copied the picture they took back then, shared it in various places (including here on my blog) and even had magnets made to give to family and friends at the time of the first anniversary of Molly’s birth and death, I decided to send them some money to show my gratitude. I was also hoping to get a higher quality .jpg, than the one I had from copying the photo years ago and saving it to my computer, that I can use to order some bigger prints to frame and display in our new home.

After I sent my money via PayPal, I got a very thoughtful email from Carly explaining that in those early days of “Names in the Sand” that she wasn’t as photo and tech savvy and thus Molly’s original name in the sand was not a high quality photo. She offered to write Molly’s name in the sand again and send me that picture instead.

I really appreciated the offer. But I also had mixed feelings about having a new version of Molly’s name in the sand, as in many ways it feels like the original is just that. Molly can never be replaced and I wasn’t sure what I would think about having a new version of her name written at sunset on Christian’s Beach in Australia.

In the end I decided to take Carly up on her kind offer. Last night I received another email from the Dudleys with the picture below attached. I think Molly’s name looks gorgeous in the sand with the beautiful sunset over the ocean in the distance.

I am so grateful to Carly and her family for giving us this precious gift in honor and memory of our Molly Marie. Many thanks to Carly, Sam and the Dudley family. I believe that their son/brother Christian is so very proud of his parents/siblings and what they have done in his honor and memory over the past three years to help so many grieving families to remember and to heal.