Help
With Funeral Costs
In the past month, we have had two families approach us looking for help with funeral, burial, or cremation costs. It breaks my heart to know that, on top of losing our children, we have to face unexpected financial costs that overwhelm us in the face of grief and loss. While I'm honored that these families thought of us to ask for help, I'm sad to say that I didn't know right off the bat that there was any help out there! So my searching turned up the following:
MISS Foundation
- The national office of
MISS is sometimes able to
help with the financial
burdens of the sudden costs
of funerals, head stones,
etc. Unfortunately, they
have has so many requests
in the year 2003 already
(it is only March!), that
their funeral fund has been
zapped dry. Please, if you
can help with a donation
-- even a small one -- please
contact them. Also, they
always offer resource support
like the following article
that can be helpful at that
critical moment when bereaved
parents just can't make
heads nor tails of the fact
that they are burying their
children! Check it out the
link to the full article:
http://www.missfoundation.org/family/funeral.html
TEARS in WA State
- In the process of getting
their 501c3, and it should
be about 2 months until
they officially have tax
exempt status. Most of their
funding will come from local
churches and businesses,
and eventually, they will
apply for grants if/when
they can. The goal of the
TEARS foundation for their
first year is to help one
family a month with financial
assistance towards their
baby's final arrangements.
(This can be towards burial,
cremation, headstone, etc.).
Each year they want to assist
more and more families.
They will also provide the
families with a list of
community referrals such
as perinatal loss support
groups, etc. And eventually,
they would like to have
an annual retreat for bereaved
parents. Right now, they
are in the grassroots stages,
and their main focus will
be assisting parents with
their funeral expenses.
Contact for the group is
Sarah Slack. Jesse Curtis
Slack, stillborn on Nov.
14, 2000, was the inspiration
for the TEARS foundation.
You can see a memorial website
for him at:
www.geocities.com/saraheslack/page1jesse.html
Sophies Voice - a non-profit
organization whose intention
is to help grieving parents
bury their child in a manner
which helps them find solace.
By using donations provided
by caring people, Sophie's
Voice will assist those
that may need some financial
help at a time when money
is the last thing on their
minds. Every parent and
every child deserves all
the help they can get during
this time. Knowing that
our Sophie rests peacefully
in a beautiful place makes
her mother and father just
a bit more comfortable.....and
that's worth it.
http://www.sophiesvoice.org
These are the resources I was able to find through my work with MISS and the outreach we are doing in person and online. If you know of any other organizations helping with funerals expenses for bereaved families, please let me know. And if you can help by making a donation of any size to any of the afore mentioned organizations, please do!!
About
the Author
Kevin Smith fan, Lord of
the Rings freak, would rather
escape to watch movies than
work, your general variety
of slacker, queen of purple
hair, foolish curator, idiotic
editor, and generally bored
with everything lately.
If you have questions or
comments, send email to
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