Locals take part in worldwide candle lighting service

On Sunday, December 8, 2019 was the Worldwide Candle Lighting Memorial Service sponsored by The Compassionate Friends.

Millions of parents and others lit a candle at 7:00 p.m. for one hour to honor sons, daughters, brothers, sisters and grandchildren gone too soon.

Stated on the Compassionate Friends website, one of the greatest fears of every bereaved parent is that his or her child will cease to be remembered or that the light and life of a son or daughter will simply fade as time goes on.

Leah Maas, mother of Parker Killian Moore, came together with family and friends Sunday at the Walk at Sandy Run Park in Warner Robins, to light a candle in her son’s memory. Family and friends of the late Chuck Mauk and many others whose loved ones were lost to violence, also lit candles in their memory.

Worldwide Candle Lighting Memorial Service sponsored by The Compassionate Friends was started in the United States in 1997 as a small internet observance, but has since swelled in numbers as word has spread throughout the world of the remembrance. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.