The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting

Light a Candle on Dec. 8 for all Children who Have Died

The death of a child is devastating and it is important to the

family that the child always be remembered. Members of the Marin Chapter of The

Compassionate Friends (TCF) will participate in an annual worldwide event

designed to honor the memories of all children, regardless of age, who have

died. The chapter is joining Sunday, December 09, 2012 with hundreds of

organized memorial services around the world for The Compassionate Friends 16th
annual Worldwide Candle Lighting, an event now believed to be the largest mass
candle lighting in the world.

The local Compassionate Friends candle lighting will be part of
a special service held at 7:00 pm at Unity in Marin, 600 Palm Drive, Novato, CA
(in the Hamilton area of Novato) and will feature music, poetry, candle lighting
and a special DVD of photos of our children set to music. Candles will be
provided for everyone. Please arrive by 6:45 pm as the event will start promptly
at 7:00 pm.

You are welcome to bring a framed photo of your child to the
candle lighting for display and a dessert or appetizer to share if you are so
inclined for the reception following the service.

Annually tens of thousands of families, united in loss, light
candles for one hour during the Worldwide Candle Lighting, held the second
Sunday in December. Candles are first lit at 7 p.m., local time, just west of
the International Date Line. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are
lighted in the next, creating a 24-hour wave of light as the observance
continues around the world.

"This is our gift to the bereavement community," says
TCF/USA Executive Director Patricia Loder. The holiday season is an extremely
difficult time of the year for families grieving the death of a child. This
marks well one and a half decades the Worldwide Candle Lighting has united
bereaved families around the globe as a symbolic way of showing the love we
continue to carry for our children, even though they can no longer be with us
physically. This candle lighting transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and
political boundaries as tens of thousands of families share in this worldwide
memorial event.

"Here, throughout the United States," Mrs. Loder adds,
"members of our 650 chapters observe this day in differing ways, some
alone, some with friends and family, and many in organized candle lighting
ceremonies like the service planned by the Marin chapter of The Compassionate
Friends. We invite everyone, whether or not they have suffered the personal loss
of a child, to join in this moving tribute."

With the theme "…that their
light may always shine," the Worldwide Candle Lighting has grown larger every year with formal services last
year in all 50 United States and Washington D.C., as well as at least 19
countries around the world. TCF’s national website,
www.compassionatefriends.org, is expected to receive and post information on
more than the 550 services submitted to and listed on its website last year. The
website will also have open for posts a Remembrance Book December 9 which, in a
24-hour-period will receive thousands of tributes from family members and other
caring individuals.

Please call the TCF of Marin phone line if you have any
questions. 415-457-3123 or visit the Marin TCF website at: http://www.heinzs.org/tcfmarin/