A Windsor family joined people worldwide in lighting a candle of remembrance for children who have died Sunday night.
Jack and Denise Morneau lost their son Rob in an industrial accident back in 2016 and his wife Tricia to cancer in December of 2017 — the couple joined hundreds in attendance at Fogolar Furlan Club to remember their son, daughter in-law and many others at the Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting.
A photo of the late Tricia and Rob Morneau(centre) displayed on the table of remembrance at the Canadian Mental Health Association of Windsor's Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting at the Fogolar Furlan Club on Sunday December 9, 2018. (Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)
The international event is in its 20th year, but the Canadian Mental Health Associations Bereavement Program has put together the vigil in Windsor for the past 10-years.
Jack Morneau says those in attendance are a testament to the program's benefit.
"All of a sudden, bam, my son falls through a skylight on the top of a roof and our whole world changed that day," says Morneau. "This has been an anchor for us, this grief group, they're very, very, close friends that we have through that now."
Morneau tells AM800 News he'll sometimes see accidents in the media and takes some comfort in knowing that there's a lifeline out there for loved ones to get through tough times.
"The parents of that individual that died, turn up in our grief group so they can count on the support and everything from the group that's really meaningful for those people as it is for us to be able to help somebody out that's going through the same thing that we did," he says.
He says the program provided the family with lifelong friends.
"I don't know what we would have done without them, it enabled us to meet and become very close friends with other people who've been going through the loss of a child," he says. "There's a real closeness in that group and they understand things."
Loved ones surrounded a "memory table" in the centre of the main building before taking a walk through candlelit paths to mourn for those who were gone too soon.