Jacob's Joy offers hope and friendship while dealing with grief
OAK HARBOR — After suffering multiple miscarriages, Santanna Mikolajscyk of Fremont tried to work through her grief on her own, but her pain remained with her.
“You try to do it by yourself, and that’s not good,” she said.
Last year, she discovered Jacob’s Joy, a Christian nonprofit organization with a mission to support families who have lost a child and to address the stigma of pregnancy loss. Through Jacob’s Joy, Mikolajscyk discovered hope and friendship. On Saturday, she joined some of those friends at the 4th Annual Walk by Faith Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Walk hosted by Jacob’s Joy at Camp Sabroske in Oak Harbor.
“I joined Jacob’s Joy last year. I think it is great that this is in the community,” she said.
Jacob’s Joy was founded by Lauren Gackstetter of Oak Harbor who lost her son Jacob when she was 15 weeks pregnant. She said her faith in God helped her work through her grief, and now she is bringing hope to others who are facing the same pain.
Jacob’s Joy provides care packages for women at St. Charles Hospital in Oregon who have lost a child from miscarriage or stillborn birth. Care packages are also mailed across the country. The group is looking to provide its services to patients at a second area hospital, Gackstetter said.
Fifteen families attended Saturday’s Remembrance Walk to honor and remember the children they lost. Gackstetter’s mother, Joyce Grimm, read the names of 67 children who had died, and their names were written on pumpkins which lined the pond at Camp Sabroske. Families carried candles in their children’s memory as they walked past the pumpkins.
“Grief is not a sign of weakness or a lack of faith. Grief is a sign of love,” Grimm told the group after reading the names.
As Grimm read the names, 134 pink and blue pinwheels spun in the wind, representing the 134 babies that die from miscarriage or stillborn birth every day in Ohio.
Addressing the crowd, Gackstetter acknowledged the reality of the pain of infant loss and shared her desire to help the Jacob’s Joy families keep their child’s memory alive.
“I want you to know your baby is remembered every day. Your baby matters to us,” she said. “There are 134 babies lost every day in Ohio. On the one hand, it’s heartbreaking, but it also lets you know you’re not alone.”
Morgan Grover of Elmore was grateful the Remembrance Walk gave her the opportunity to publicly honor her son, Mason, who was stillborn.
“He was an IVF pregnancy after three years, and then he was stillborn at 30 weeks in May, 2020,” Grover said. “My niece was stillborn at 18 weeks just two weeks ago.”
Losing her son was agonizing, and the isolation forced by the pandemic made the grief process even more difficult.
“He died right at the beginning of COVID, and we couldn’t have a proper service. We could have immediate family at the graveside, but that was it,” Grover said.
Jacob’s Joy has been instrumental in keeping Mason’s memory alive.
“I don’t want him to ever be forgotten because he was a baby, and people loved him,” Grover said. “He’s not here, so I want to help keep his memory alive best I can.”
For more information, visit the Jacob’s Joy Facebook page.
Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at sheritrusty4@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Jacob's Joy offers hope and friendship while dealing with grief
