NAMING OUR PROGRAM FUNDED BY THE LILY FUND
We have spent over a year brainstorming what to name our program that supports our families as they face end of life and beyond that was inspired by Lily. We have tossed names around and a few ideas that I thought were good were vetoed ( through laughter) by Lily’s mom, Melanie. Apparently, my creative juices weren’t flowing quite as I thought! And honestly, now that we have the name, I realize that none of them were good enough (and maybe even laughable).
I had lunch last week with Lily’s mom. We had a few good laughs about Lily (I wish you all knew her. Seriously, she was one of a kind), caught up on life, ate way too much and then I mentioned that we still don’t have a name for the program. The next day, she sent me a text with an idea she had and I was in a rush and didn’t process the suggestion. The next day I went back and re-read the text and realized how perfect it is for this program.
Without further ado, our program we have been referring to as: ” our program to support families at end-of-life and beyond that is funded by The Lily Fund” will now be called Our Stargazers Program. Lily’s mom suggested it because Stargazer is a type of lily which is perfect because it honors our program’s inspiration. So that seemed reason enough plus the star in our logo but because I love to google, I looked up the meaning of these flowers. This is what I found: “Stargazer lilies are young, bold, beautiful, and dramatic (Just like Lily & many of our other FGP kids). The meaning of the white variety can dress down to genuinely express purity (like our FGP kids) and sympathy (which we have for our families)” Gulp… so that makes it fit even more and then I thought about the longing our families feel after their children pass and how many of them are looking forward to being reunited in Heaven. In my mind, I picture them gazing at the stars.
Thank you so much, Melanie, for sharing your girl with me, for knowing how your family’s experience would change FGP, our community and me and for coming up with the perfect name for this program. You have given me (and our community) a gift and it is an honor to officially launch our Stargazers Program in honor of Lily!