2020 Virtual Walk to Remember

Bi-Monthly Share Burial

Every second month, Share families gather to celebrate, remember and lovingly bury the sweet babies lost in the previous two months. Burials are held on the second Tuesday of January, March, May, July, September, & November. Honoring your babies and your grief, we invite you to join us at 2:30 PM for a grave-side service at St. Joseph's New Catholic Cemetery (170 Charles Road, Lancaster, PA). Please feel free to bring flowers to the burial service.

*If you are looking to find out where you can drop off items for the upcoming burial or where your baby is buried, please call Charles F. Snyder Funeral Home at either 717-393-9661 or 717-560-5100. For burial information, you will need to provide the month and year of loss, and the mother’s full name (including legal last name) at time of loss.*

Two weeks ago, the Share of Lancaster burial site at St. Joseph's New Catholic Cemetery was a very different place. Two weeks ago, our babies rested in a shady, tree-lined field filled with bird-song and gentle breezes. It was beautiful, peaceful, and worthy of the love we bear for our children.

Then the construction came to the property next to St. Joe's and changed the landscape entirely. Now, it's raw, bare, and ugly. Devastated. Our burial place should never be like this. This was not supposed to be.

We at Share wonder if this feels something like the experience newly bereaved families have had recently- not long ago, they were happy. Expecting a little one or two, dreaming of the lifetime of love and joy ahead, filled with hope and the beauty of the future. And now this. Now these families are laying their children to rest and it's raw, ugly, wrong.

We at Share have been where you are now. We experience these feelings with you. And it's been our mission for 40 years to make the devastation you are feeling a little less horrible, a little less lonely.

As loss parents ourselves, we understand the journey you are starting. We know that- like winter moves to spring- you will begin to heal. Slowly. And just as we commit to do everything we can to restore our burial site to a beautiful place worthy of the children who rest there, we also commit to walk with all bereaved families through their emotional restoration.

Share of Lancaster offers a monthly parents support group one Saturday morning a month at the Ephrata Library- see our website for details. We also offer a companion support video, so even if you aren't able to make it out in person, you can receive information and support at home- again see our website.

We offer seasonal events like parent-focused gatherings in the spring and each October we host our annual Walk to Remember where we all gather to honor our children, our parenthood, and our healing.

This year we are expanding our work toward education of medical staff and increased advocacy for the needs of bereaved families in our area by hosting a weekend perinatal loss conference in October.

Out of the raw, ugly places of our own lives, Share of Lancaster has worked steadily to be present with those who are likewise devastated. We are a community of neighbors who never wished to be in such an impossible place. But if we have to experience the horror of child loss, if we HAVE to be here, we are so glad we can be here together. As our founder Kathy Kuhn said at our 40th anniversary last fall, "Our Healing is In One Another."

Thank you for allowing Share to walk with you on this journey from raw devastation into places of restoration and healing.