Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebekah Mitchell.
Rebekah, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My second son, Jonathan Daniel Mitchell, was stillborn on June 24, 1995. My family and friends were very supportive and grieved along with us, but I needed to connect with other moms who had endured the loss of a baby too. I needed to know if my thoughts and feelings were normal, or if I was making too big of a deal out of my loss.
One year after Jonathan’s death, I was cleaning my house and was about to throw away the Sunday edition of the Dallas Times Herald, when I decided to look through the obituary section to see if maybe there was a notice of an infant death. Indeed there was, so I wrote a card to the family expressing my condolences and letting them know that I understood their heartache because I also suffered a stillbirth. I mailed the card to the funeral home that was listed, and thankfully they forwarded my card to them. A few weeks later, this mom and I met for lunch. We sat there for hours sharing our experiences and our babies.
Not long after that meeting, we met another loss mom, then another, then another. I realized we had started our own support group. It didn’t take long for our support group to become official. I named us M.E.N.D. (Mommies Enduring Neonatal Death). We are a Christian non-profit organization that reaches out to families who have suffered the loss of a baby to miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death. We offer a variety of monthly support groups, including an online group, We host three remembrance ceremonies each year, publish a free bi-monthly magazine, and regularly present in hospitals to healthcare providers on how they can care for families when a baby dies.
Today, 23 years later, we have 14 chapters in ten states. Our magazines are distributed to over 1,500 households all over the United States and a handful of other countries. We also have a beautiful Garden of Hope in Irving, which allows families to have a quiet place they can visit to remember, reflect, and find hope in their sorrow.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Because the death of a baby is so incredibly horrific to think about, sometimes people don’t want to know all the nitty-gritty details of what we do. Also, because we are a Christian organization, sometimes doors are closed, not allowing us to distribute our literature to some healthcare facilities.
We’d love to hear more about your organization.
What makes M.E.N.D. unique in the infant loss world is that every single one of us has experienced the death of a baby. Some organizations are made up of leaders or employees who just have a heart for the mission of the organization. This is certainly true for M.E.N.D. too, but our passion comes from our own heartbreaking experiences. Additionally, every one of us involved with M.E.N.D. is a volunteer, so 100% of our generous donations go toward furthering our cause of reaching out to families who have experienced a loss.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I couldn’t run M.E.N.D. without our tireless Board of Directors and Advisory Board members. Aside from their roles as decision-makers, they are also my assistants. Every member of our boards has a role in running the day to day operations of our ministry.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.mend.org
- Phone: (972) 506-9000
- Email: Rebekah@mend.org
- Facebook: M.E.N.D. Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (Mommies Enduring Neonatal Death)
- Other: M.E.N.D. (Mommies Enduring Neonatal Death)
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