Trees of Light ceremonies benefit those in hospice

Jana Mathia, Gazette Reporter | Nov 16, 20170

The annual Memorial Trees of Light and Remembrance Ceremony, sponsored by Friends of Hospice, is set for early December. The event is an opportunity for people to honor the name and memory of loved ones who have died, whether in the past year or decades ago. The deceased did not have to be on hospice care.

“It’s about coming together in community to honor those who have died,” said Annie Pillers, director of Friends of Hospice.

Friends of Hospice has been providing services and support to people on hospice and those close to them for 23 years.

Services include grief counseling, legacy journal recordings and massage.

Names and donations are submitted to Friends of Hospice for Trees of Light. The ceremony includes a reading of all the names which are on hand-made ornaments hung on the trees. Pillers noted area quilters and sewers make the ornaments for the event.

While there is ceremony to the event, it is still informal with time to visit and talk as a community, according to Pillers. Afterward, people are invited to take the ornament with their loved one’s name, but many leave them on the trees which stay up for the remainder of the season at Bishop Place in Pullman and the Whitman County Library in Colfax.

One ceremony will be in Pullman Dec. 5 and the other in Colfax Dec. 6.

“We get people from Rosalia to Troy that come,” Pillers said. She described the ceremonies as “tender and touching.”

“It’s light and lovely,” said Pillers, who submits her parents’ names for the trees. “It’s one of my favorite things.”

Names and donations can be submitted by anyone. Pillers said they receive names from locals for people who live out of the area and from people who live out of the area for people who were local. People can submit names and have an acknowledgement sent to someone else. Such as if a woman in Seattle submitted the name of a friend’s parent. “She wants you to know your mom’s name will be on the tree this year,” Pillers explained.

Names need to be received by Nov. 28 to have their ornaments made and put on the program.

For more information or to submit a name, email Pillers director@friendsofhospice.net or http://www.friendsofhospice.net.