Honoring the Memories
Our handbells are individually donated and carry a child's name and unique inscription created by the parents in each handle (click on a name to see the inscription and, for those with asterisks(*), biographical information and photos). Some of the current ringers are parents or relatives of these children.
Music Made in Heaven remembers the children by reading their inscriptions and ringing their bell at the rehearsal closest to their birthday. This is done for all of the children at our annual "Gathering" concert in the spring. Tributes and photos of the children also are included in a special scrapbook.
The music played by the bells representing our children is unlike any other – it is a beautiful contribution the children are continuing to make to the world each time we ring.
Tributes
Music Made in Heaven
You watch the children run and play,
You love to hear them sing.
It brings you such a sweet delight
To hear their laughter ring.
But you and I, we look at them
In quite a different way.
People ask you how you’re feeling
And you don’t know what to say.
But they send down their songs of love,
The tune is in our heart
Their music is made in heaven
So we’ll never be apart.
So now we live from day to day
Knowing we’ll see them again;
For now they’re in God’s loving arms,
No doubts, no fears, no pain.
There’s an empty space deep in our hearts,
A void we’ll never fill;
We sometimes think we won’t make it through,
But God knows that we will.
‘Cause they send down their songs of love,
The tune is in our heart
Their music is made in heaven
So we’ll never be apart.
-Dave Douglas 2004
Father of Jasmine Dominique Douglas
Witness to a New Song
I hear a voice starting low, gentle but strong;
It grows.
And one by one in joins another,
A band of angels has called upon each other.
A delight to my ears
To my musical senses, a joy,
They are singing to me and to all in this place,
Which was already thin and near to God,
But now spirits abound and their voices sing loud.
Their presence is overwhelming.
They call upon more,
Perhaps all those who have left so untimely
before.
Their numbers multiply and fill
every space within this thin place;
And also within my being.
My mind is consumed by their message
~ HOPE ~
My heart is bursting.
There is no question,
you have called them into our presence with your love.
Grateful they seem at the chance to live again,
To sing a song they were never able to sing.
Their lives were a blessing,
A gift to you.
Their spirits are now a gift
To all who hear
Their new song.
-Lynette Smith 2006
Friend of Music Made in Heaven
The Bell Ringers at St. Michael's
They ring their music from both grief and love;
Sounds range from tinkling to a deep-toned bass.
And all the notes soar upward like a dove,
In concert summoning each name and face.
The fourteen members play with heart and soul,
And with the grace that hard, long practice gives.
No need to ask for whom these bells now toll,
For each lost child in each sweet note still lives.
Each name is etched into the bell's own brass
Each name's recorded in the Lamb's own Book.
They contradict the theme, all flesh is grass.
And shine as brightly as a foil that's shook.
And we who hear, play, too, our privileged part,
As each note rung strikes both the ear and heart.
Thomas H. Hubert
Written after a 2024 concert by Music Made in Heaven at St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Raleigh, NC