More than 100 people gather for Ceremony of Remembrance

Balloons marked with messages to loved ones were let off into the sky at the end of the Ceremony of Remembrance as musicians played a rendition of Somewhere Over The Rainbow, while representatives from Ballarat’s support services read poems about the loss of a child. 

For Mick McGarry, the 2016 service was his fifth year in attendance.  In 2002 Mr McGrarry lost his son to suicide before tragically losing his daughter in a murder just two months later.

He said gathering with other people who had lost a loved one was a healthy way to grieve.  

“I think everybody together, we're all in the same boat,” Mr McGarry said. 

“Some have been grieving for years while some a just freshly grieving.

"Watching those balloons fly away really gives you a bit of oomph in your heart.”

Mr McGarry and his wife have since gone on to help set up The Compassionate Friends Ballarat group, which aims to provide families who have lost a child with a support framework.

Mr McGarry said it was particularly important that people were supported during the Christmas period, given it was natural to be thinking of missing loved ones. 

“It’s a lot harder around anniversaries and Christmas time and birthdays,” Mr McGarry said.

“There’s people here who are grieving for stillborns and really young ones so I think it helps them to get through the festive season and it’s a good lead-up to it (Christmas).”

The Ceremony of Remembrance is organised by the Ballarat Bereavement Support Network and presented by Very Special Kids, St John of God Hospital, Ballarat Health Services, Ballarat Hospice Care, SANDS, Leukemia Foundation, The Compassionate Friends, Cops’n’Kids, Red Nose and Grief and Loss.

The Ceremony of Remembrance will be held again next year on Monday, December 18 at the Ballarat New Cemetary.