'Gone too soon': Families pay tribute to babies lost, this Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It's not hard to figure out the pink and blue lights on the Hoan Bridge Tuesday night represent babies, but organizers hope the lights make you think of babies gone too soon and the families left behind.

That beautiful view, for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, remembering that sometimes families suffer in silence.

It was an emotional remembrance by candlelight as the names of 2,000 babies, including a thousand who died in Wisconsin, were read one by one.

"It's a really fitting tribute, we think, to all of our babies who are gone too soon," said Hazel Jones, of Mattie's Memory.

Hazel Jones runs Mattie's Memory - a way she's turned personal sorrow into a helping hand.

"This one was literally a month after he was born…I want to say the first year is a blur, and it's painful because you've got the firsts, the first Christmas, the first Easter," said Jones.

Her Matthew never made it outside the womb. He was stillborn at 21 weeks.

"He was, you know, gonna be my second son, his big brother Robert was so looking forward to being a brother and it just collapsed our world, basically," said Jones.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four pregnancies in the U.S. ends in miscarriage, and one in 175 pregnancies ends in stillbirth. Jones says whether it was a miscarriage, stillbirth, or even abortion, the pain of losing a child carries on forever.

"And I think for those who choose not to go through with their pregnancies, they have their own pain," said Jones.

Twelve years later, Matthew's absence from family gatherings is noted, but they feel his presence. He's even in the mascot they chose for their organization.

"The week before Matthew died, our pet turtle died, and we joke that, well, when Matthew got to heaven, well, he had a pet ready and waiting for him," said Jones.

The International Wave of Light is going on all over the world with a call to action, asking people everywhere to light a candle for one hour Tuesday night in remembrance of young children who lit up people's lives for just a very short time.