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Moving Tributes to Children Who Have Passed Away


The newly-released compilation of Tributes to Lost Children presents an inspiring mosaic of ways in which 147 families have, with deep and abiding love, honored their children who have passed away. It is based on insights gathered from a survey of families conducted by author Rod Mebane, himself a bereaved father. In this heart-touching collection of tribute stories, there are literally hundreds of tributes – from the creation of treasure boxes for special mementos to planting colorful gardens in the yard, supporting charitable 5Ks, and joining with others in a worldwide candle lighting service. The list goes on and on, and together the stories create a wonderfully moving account of how families have paid tribute to their children.

Tributes to Lost Children
by Rod Mebane

Alan Pedersen, the Executive Director of The Compassionate Friends at the time of publication, wrote the foreword to Tributes to Lost Children, in which he notes,

In my nearly fifteen years walking this walk as a bereaved father, I have not come across such a powerful resource of first-hand information. This book has a wealth of examples of how others not only survived their loss, but also what they did that helped them find their way back to fully living again.

The artfully designed book is straightforward and easy-to-read. The narrative flows naturally along the lines of what Mebane refers to as the Tributes Framework – a simple thematic structure based on the families’ interests 1) to keep the children present in their lives, 2) to have their children be remembered, and 3) and ultimately to create some good from their losses. As one dad offered in the survey,

The tributes help by making us proactive. It gives us something to do rather than just sitting and letting the feelings of deep grief overwhelm us. So much of this is out of our control and, by doing something, it gives us a sense that we can contribute in a meaningful way.

If you have lost a child, you will find fellowship in these pages, and you may see yourself and your child in some of the beautiful tributes. If you have not lost a child, reading this book will deepen your understanding of one of life’s most tragic dimensions. Regardless of your circumstances, you will pay important tribute yourself by allowing the children to live on, as you read these personal stories about them.

CLICK HERE to read a free public review copy (in netbook format) of Tributes to Lost Children.

Availability

Paperback – ISBN 978‐0‐9908547‐0-8 – 8.25″ wide x 5.75″ tall – 134 pages, 26 photographs – List Price $7.99

Individual copies of Tributes to Lost Children are available from Amazon and other online & independent booksellers.

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WRITINGS ON THE WALL

  • Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled. –Horace, Epistles
  • Words are like leaves and, where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found. –Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
  • Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it. –Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
  • The writer doesn’t want success ... The writer wants to leave a scratch on the wall of oblivion that someone a hundred or a thousand years later will see. Kilroy was here. –William Faulkner, Faulkner in the University
  • How long a time lies in one little word! Such is the breath of kings. –Shakespeare, King Richard II
  • Good words are worth much … and cost little. –George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum
  • Choice word and measured phrase… above the reach of ordinary men. –William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence
  • Prête-moi ta plume pour écrire un mot. Lend me your pen to write a word. –Au Clair de la Lune
  • It is not of so much consequence what you say, as how you say it. Memorable sentences are memorable on account of some irradiating word. –Alexander Smith, “Dreamthorp,” On the Writing of Essays
  • How many verses have I thrown into the fire because the one peculiar word, the wanted most, was irrecoverably lost. –Walter Savage Landor, Verses Why Burnt
  • And many a word, at random spoken, may soothe a wound or heart that’s broken. –Sir Walter Scott, Lord of the Isles
  • Nature fits all her children with something to do, He who would write and can’t write, can surely review. –James Russell Lowell, A Fable for Critics
  • In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. –The Common Gospel, “Eternal Word”
  • Watch your thoughts, they become your words. Watch your words, they become your action. Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. –Anonymous
  • “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.” –Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
  • Sweet religion makes a rhapsody of words. –Shakespeare, Hamlet
  • Omit needless words. –William Strunk, Jr, The Elements of Style
  • Man’s word is God in man. –Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Idylls of the King,” The Coming of Arthur
  • In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature. –Wallace Stevens, Opus Posthumous
  • The only thing I was fit for was to be a writer, and this notion rested solely on my suspicion that I would never be fit for real work and that writing didn’t require any. –Russell Baker, Growing Up
  • Honeyed words like bees, gilded and sticky, with a little sting. –Elinor Hoyt Wylie, Pretty Words
  • So is a word better than a gift. –Apocrypha
  • A writer lives in awe of words for they can be cruel or kind, and they can change their meanings right in front of you. They pick up flavors and odors like butter in a refrigerator. –John Steinbeck, “In Awe of Words”
  • Life's like a movie. Write your own ending. Keep believing, keep pretending. –Jim Henson, The Muppet Movie
  • The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it. –Ernest Hemingway, Paris Review
  • Word is a shadow of deed. –Democritus
  • All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind. –Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam
  • Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact. It is silence which isolates. –Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain
  • To call forth a concept, a word is needed; to portray a phenomenon, a concept is needed. All three mirror one and the same reality. –Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Traité Elémentaire de Chimie
  • Light dies before thy uncreating word; Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall, and universal darkness buries all. –Alexander Pope, The Dunciad
  • The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls and whispered in the sounds of silence. –Paul Simon, The Sound of Silence
  • My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts –never to heaven go. –Shakespeare, Hamlet
  • I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long Words Bother me. –Alan Alexander Milne, Willie-the-Pooh

CLICK HERE to see these writings on the wall in a larger size.

Printing in Perspective

Printing in Perspective
Your life is made up of two dates and a dash. Make the most of the dash.

Make the most of your life - your dash! - and share what you learn with others.

The kingdom of God does not come with observation ... for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. -Jesus the Messiah. The Common Gospel ("Final Journey)

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