My First CareNote: A Special Gift of Remembrance

On the first anniversary of Kitty's death, I received the most unexpected and touching gift.  Someone remembered.  Someone cared enough to let me know that one year later, they were thinking of and praying for Kitty, me, my husband and our family.

A card arrived in the mail with a little booklet enclosed – A CareNote.  It's entitled, “On the First Anniversary of Your Loss”.

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I had never seen a CareNote prior to Kitty's 1st anniversary, but now I notice them in churches, at funeral homes, on the resource table at grief support groups and in the office at the cemetery.  These little volumes of caring are not new … but I am new to them … so now I readily notice them.  They are marvelous little 8-page pamphlets that include words of comfort, advice, additional places of help, quotations and poems.

Whenever I see a display of CareNotes, I glance through the titles, looking for a new-to-me topic.  There are more than 250 CareNotes (possibly closer to 400 different publications, but I cannot find an exact count) on subjects including grief and loss, healthcare, personal healing, end of life/hospice, family care, recovery and aging, to name a few.  They are written for teens, grandparents, parents, children and families.  Many are available in both Spanish and English.  No matter what message of comfort you want to send, there's a CareNote to do just that.

Two of the booklets I have are “Handling the Heartbreak of a Child's Death” and “When You've Lost A Grandchild”.  Every once in awhile, I dig them out and read through those eight little pages.  Another specific CareNote I want to read is “Celebrating the Memory of a Child Who Has Died”.  Not that we haven't honored Kitty in many ways …  I just want to add this to my collection.

It means so much that friends and family remember Kitty and want to let us know that they haven't forgotten her or the fact that my family is traveling a long grief journey.

Receiving that one little CareNote on the anniversary of Kitty's death warmed my heart like nothing else.  What an awesome and simple way to show you care.

If you are interested in CareNotes, either for yourself or to send to someone in need of support, they are published by Abbey Press Publications and can be found at www.onecaringplace.com.

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