Scrapbooking Still Birth

My niece should be celebrating her first birthday this month. Instead she died before she had a chance to live. My sister labored before delivering her via Cesearan in October 2012. I helped my sister create a shadowbox to memorialize Annabelle.

I created a scrapbook to memorialize Annabelle. I wish I could report that it was this amazingly therapeutic experience, but it really wasn’t. I’m glad I made the scrapbook, but it doesn’t change the fact that this random and cruel thing happened to my sister and my family.

What happened happened. I want to share with you the scrapbook I made. The topic is challenging, but also raises questions about what could you include to memorialize a still birth that did not even happen to myself.

I started with the cover. I looked long and hard for an album that could accomodate that memorabilia that I had and this album fit the bill. My sister had painted these stars for Annabelle’s room and I asked if I could have one for my scrapbook. I used gorilla glue to adhere it. I don’t want it going anywhere! I have no idea if it is archival. I just know that it is strong! I painted the cover of the album purple and then silver over it to get its look.

I included a photocopy of Annabelle’s obituary and a sympathy card I received.

My sweet daughter…after explaining what had happened, my four-year-old made this card for her aunt. Who says empathy can be understood by preschoolers? Anyway, I photographed her with the card before sending it on to her aunt. I had extra flowers like she used in the card that I added to my layout.

This page is difficult to read, but it says, “Every bit as horrible as you can possibly imagine.” It really is. That’s all I have to say on that.

On this page, I’ve included my sister with Annabelle. I have other photos of Annabelle on subsequent pages, too. The page on the left was left blank so that I can add journaling. This album has a lot of room for journaling. I still haven’t completed the journaling yet, but I wanted to make sure there was room for plenty of it if I go long. If I run short, that’s ok, too. I think the empty space communicates something important, as well. 

I printed out the comments from my facebook feed. I posted announcements regarding what was happening. I regularly took screen shots to send to my sister so she knew how many people were thinking, praying, worrying, and supporting her, and so on.

And that’s that.

My sister maintains a website about her still birth experience.