Homemade heart gnomes comfort children in times of loss and sadness (Stabroek)

105 ladies accepted the invitation from Rustpunt Funerals to make heart gnomes for children with sadness.

When someone dies, it often has a major impact on the entire family. Saying goodbye is also often difficult for (young) children. Children often do not understand what is going on, but they feel very clearly the sadness of the people around them.

Gert Verhaert of Rustpunt Funerals: “In current times we sometimes have the tendency to want to shield children from grief. But sooner or later everyone is confronted with loss and farewell. We think it is very important to involve children as much as possible when they encounter this. We do this on a child-sized basis. We let them do crafts and make drawings for the deceased. For example, we can also read a gnome story during the ceremony and let them choose their own heart gnome.”

To give as many children as possible who have to miss someone the opportunity to choose a heart gnome, we needed a lot of them. That is why we made a warm appeal to everyone with a heart for children and crocheting.”

The result was overwhelming. 105 ladies came to the coffee room of the Rustpunt Funeral Center to crochet heart gnomes. Some of them even brought heart gnomes that they had already made at home. Others said they would continue crocheting at home.

(evdw)