Birthday Wishes

After Matthew's memorial service on July 16, 2003, friends and family gathered at a reception in our Cincinnati home.  I (Matthew's mother) had baked a chocolate cake in honor of his birth. We placed a birthday candle in each slice. All of those gathered thought of him and made a wish.      Shortly after this event, when Matthew would have been six weeks old, we moved several hundred miles away to a suburb of Philadelphia. The move was extremely difficult. We had to leave the friends who had known us through the pregnancy and who supported us in our grief, and we had to start over in a new location as an apparently childless couple. I thought of Matthew on the 19th of each month. Some of these monthly birthdays were harder than others. Sometimes I made a cake. Sometimes I made a special dinner. Sometimes I lit the small candle we had been given at Matthew's naming ceremony. On December 19, 2003, my parents were with us for a pre-Christmas holiday family celebration. We honored Matthew's 6-month birthday with cards, reflections, and a special, orange-glazed chocolate cake, and I shared the recently written "Matthew's Song" with them. It took me six long months to feel ready to try again to add to our family. When I blew out the candle on my slice of Matthew's half-year birthday cake, I wished that one year from that day we might have a new life in our family. Matthew's little sister Chloe was born on October 15, 2004.  Her baby blessing took place on December 19th. Matthew's First Birthday Memorial June 19, 2004 Newport, Rhode Island program            photos Reflections on Matthew's Second Birthday Back to Matthew's main page