MARQUETTE – Holy Cross Cemetery in Marquette has established a Miscarriage Memorial Garden for those who have experienced a pregnancy or infant loss.

In honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month in October, Holy Cross Cemetery will hold a memorial service and dedication of the cemetery’s new Miscarriage Memorial Garden.

Father Ben Paris, Director of Cemeteries for the Catholic Diocese of Marquette, will bless the memorial garden and conduct the memorial service, rain or shine, at 6:30 p.m. on October 15, the National Day of Remembrance for Pregnancy and Infant Loss.

“This newly-created memorial site establishes a place for families to validate the significance of pregnancy loss and have a public place of mourning and remembering. It is designed to honor the God-given dignity of even the smallest life and acknowledge their personhood,” said Neil Newcomb, the sexton at Holy Cross Cemetery in Marquette. “Even if it is too late to gather the physical remains of a miscarried child, it will never be too late to remember in some small way by memorializing them forever in the cemetery of the Catholic family.”

Holy Cross Cemetery has set aside and donated space for a memorial in remembrance of the children who were miscarried. It is located at 1400 Wright Street in Marquette.

The new miscarriage garden features a large white cross and benches for parents to sit, pray and reflect, alongside gardens with flowers and delicate trees. Plans are underway to complete the garden in the spring of 2014 by erecting a statue of Rachel mourning her children, as noted in Scripture: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more” (Mt 2:18).

Donations are currently being accepted for the statue.

Burials of children who were miscarried will be planned at Holy Cross Cemetery in Marquette three times per year, each with a memorial service for the families, and a stone will be inscribed to memorialize each tiny life. There will be no charge for the burial, and a nominal charge for the stone inscription, so that all parents who wish to have their child buried in consecrated ground can do so.

Donations for the Rachel mourning statue can be sent to: Holy Cross Cemetery, 1400 Wright Street, Marquette, MI 49855.