Memory Bears Help Families Remember Their Loved Ones

Hospices around the country have found that creating a memory object can be very beneficial to a bereaved family. Participants in HFA's 2007 teleconference, Living With Grief: Before and After the Death, learned about Memory Bears—teddy bears sewn by VITAS hospice volunteers using a piece of clothing or other material from a loved one who has died. The video clip above is of a hospice volunteer who makes the bears for bereaved families.

Other hospices have made Memory Quilts to remember loved ones. Harry Hynes Memorial Hospice in Wichita, Kansas created a beautiful woven tapestry to memorialize lost loved ones. The tapestry won HFA's Call for Artwork contest for the cover of its 2007 Living With Grief book. The contest is now underway for the 2008 book cover, Living With Grief: Children and Adolescents.