Love does not end with death. With that understanding, members of the Whidbey Island Chapter of The Compassionate Friends (TCF), an international self-help organization for families grieving the death of a child, will join in hundreds of other chapters throughout the world in lighting candles at 7 pm Sunday, Dec. 8.

The local candle lighting will be part of a ceremony held at 6:45 p.m. at Coupeville Methodist Church gazebo, 608 N. Main St. Coupeville and will feature music, readings, and poems. Annually tens of thousands of families, united in loss, light candles for one hour during The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting which is held the second Sunday in December. Candles are first lit in New Zealand at 7 p.m., local time. As candles burn down in one time zone, they are lit in the next, creating a virtual 24-hour wave of light as the observance continues around the world, warming the hearts of grieving parents, siblings, relatives and friends everywhere.

“The holidays are an especially difficult time for families that have lost a child,” explains United States TCF executive director Patricia Loder. “The Worldwide Candle Lighting is one way in which we can show we are united with bereaved families everywhere in the love we continue to carry for our children, even though they are no longer with us.

“Here, throughout the United States, members of our nearly 600 chapters observe this day in many ways, some alone, some with friends and family, and some in organized candle lighting ceremonies. We invite all who are bereaved to join in this moving tribute, realizing they are not alone and that their child, sibling, or grandchild, will always be remembered.”

With the theme “… that their light may always shine,” the event is now in its sixth year with each observance larger than the last. At www.

compassionatefriends.org there will be a extended chat room hours and a message board for families to post tributes.

To contact the Whidbey Island Chapter of The Compassionate Friends, call 675-6424. Or e-mail tcf.whidbey@usa.net. The Compassionate Friends is located in 26 countries and is the largest self-help bereavement organization in the world.