Baystate Children’s Hospital to Display Service of Remembrance Quilts

SPRINGFIELD — The public is invited to attend the Baystate Children’s Hospital annual exhibit of memorial quilts crafted at its yearly Service of Remembrance. The event will be held Saturday, Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the hospital’s Chestnut Building/Conference Center, Rooms 1A and 1B, 759 Chestnut St., Springfield.

“This is a very moving display of powerful remembrances made with love by the families of children who have lost their lives to illness or accident,” said Marjorie Bloom, social worker from the Hospital Care Management Department at Baystate Medical Center. “We often receive requests from families who attended past services to view the quilts again.”

The Service of Remembrance, most recently held this past April, includes readings and music and is open to all family members and their friends, as well as hospital staff, who remember and pay tribute to the children who were under their care.

During each service, families are given a small piece of fabric, which they personalize in remembrance of their child before it is added along with others to create a “Tapestry of Memories” quilt. Quilts from 1998 through 2016 will be shown at this year’s quilt display.