Big brother Isaiah gazes at his newborn sister Hattie, who lived six days. Through the organization Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, photographer Lizzy Yates provided the family with photos of their daughter.

When Annie Turchi delivered her third baby three years ago, all she could think about was how she would finally have a daughter after two sons.

“We were fully prepared to take her home,” she remembers. “We were going to have a girl. We were so excited.”

After birth, Hattie Lucille was diagnosed with trisomy 13, a rare and usually fatal chromosomal condition. Hattie lived six days. “It was a very chaotic and hard six days,” Turchi says. “There is just no preparation for something like that.”

Her family was immediately overwhelmed with love and support from their friends and church family. “The hospital was overwhelmed with the amount of visitors we had,” she says. “We actually had to limit some of the people. We were extremely supported.”

She doesn’t remember now who suggested it or how it all came together, but a professional photographer, Lizzy Yates, from the organization Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep came to the hospital and took photos of her daughter. “I had no thought to call someone to come take photos of her,” Turchi says. “I didn’t understand how important it would be that I have those pictures now. We need those photos. It helps when we remember her.”

In the seven years since Yates began volunteering with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, she’s done more than 150 such sessions. It’s difficult, satisfying work. “The way I view what I do is a gift from one mother to another,” Yates says. “These are some of the strongest people I know.”

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep is one of several organizations sponsoring the 2nd Annual International Wave of Light Ceremony, to be held October 15 on the State Capitol steps. The vigil is organized by Regina Binz, founder of Holy Sews, an organization that provides handmade burial clothes for micro-preemies.

Binz lost her son, Ryan, at 17 weeks in 2007. After she went through labor and delivery, she found it difficult to find anything to bury him in because he was so small. She didn’t want other families to struggle with that issue after a loss. Since founding Holy Sews in 2009, they have distributed more than 4,000 layettes across the country.

“This is the first and last time these families will meet their babies,” Binz says. “I don’t want them to be presented as anything but beautiful.”

Like all the other organizations represented at the event, Holy Sews provides their services free of charge to families.

Binz and Turchi agree that events like this help families who have experienced infant death, stillbirth and miscarriage feel less isolated. “It used to be such a taboo subject,” says Binz. “No one talked about it. You were just supposed to move on. When I talk to older women now who lost a child years ago, they wish so badly services like these had been available to them back then.”

Turchi attended last year’s Wave of Light Ceremony. “There is comfort in knowing that you’re not the only one,” she says. “We can celebrate these lives and all that you get from an experience like this. It really did help me. It’s a good way to honor your child and give significance to such a short life.”

Although there’s no such thing as a replacement child, both women have since had healthy babies. Binz has 4-year-old Julia. Turchi has 8-month-old Leon.

Both have also found ways to connect to other families who’ve lost children and to build strong bonds through a sisterhood that no one really wants to join. “If you can find something that fits how you grieve,” says Binz of her work with families through Holy Sews, “then you can do something productive with your grief.”

Turchi says she’s been able to counsel other friends who’ve lost a child. “I know that a life that was only six days, some people don’t attribute that with a lot of significance. But she’ll have an impact for the rest of our lives. Sometimes I really miss her.”

Bereavement Nonprofit Services in Central Arkansas

Molly Bears

Molly Bears makes teddy bears for families enduring the loss of a baby from conception up to 12 months of age. A Molly bear is a weighted teddy bear made to the specific weight of the baby that passed away. For info: MollyBears.com.

Mamie’s Poppy Plates

Mamie’s Poppy Plates provides tangible mementos to families who suffer stillbirth or infant death. Keepsake plates, given to affected families at no charge, are customized with the baby’s footprints, name and birth information. For info: MamiesPoppyPlates.com.

Holy Sews

Holy Sews provides handmade infant burial clothing for families that experience the loss of their baby during gestational weeks 16-25. These micro preemie babies are much too tiny and fragile for any other clothing that is readily available. Layettes that families can choose from are supplied to hospitals and funeral homes at no charge. For info: HolySews.org.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep trains, educates, and mobilizes professional quality photographers to provide beautiful heirloom portraits to families facing the untimely death of an infant. For info: NowILayMeDownToSleep.org.

Wave of Light

6:30 p.m. Oct. 15, 2015 • State Capitol steps
In observance of International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, the 2nd Annual International Wave of Light Ceremony brings grieving families together to remember and honor babies who died too soon due to miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death.