Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. —Helen Keller

Sleep evaded me as emergency sirens twice warned of approaching tornadoes, although I was exhausted after a long and satisfying Saturday in early June spent as a volunteer at Camp Heart2Heart, a program for grieving youngsters and the adults in their lives co-sponsored by Ele’s Place and Arbor Hospice’s Grief Support Services.

Television news reports showed the storms moving through the Napoleon area where just a few hours before 26 youngsters from age 5 to 15, 12 parents and other family members, and 27 staff members and volunteers had spent the day at the Storer YMCA Camp.

Each time I returned to bed my mind recalled the stories of sorrow and grief I heard, the numerous ways I had witnessed participants support and offer hope to one another, and the resilience I observed in children and adults alike in the face of profound loss.

During the day youngsters decorated small candle-heart boats and pillows to remember the parents, siblings, and other family members who were no longer with them. They engaged in activities that required communication and teamwork. And perhaps most importantly, they played, laughed, and made new friends.

Their caregivers also shared their grief as they described the challenges of “holding it together” for their families, taking on new responsibilities, and addressing their own losses. In charting the journey of their grief, they, like their children, reached out to one another and found reasons to smile as well as to cry.

The children weren't able to launch their boats in the camp’s lake because of an early-evening rain, but the indoor ceremony was no less touching as children lit candles and spoke words of remembrance for their loved ones.

Later, awaiting sleep, I reflected on the ceremony and the resilience of families, and I eventually found ease as the tumult and upheaval of the storms receded into the distance. Dennis Sparks’ “Things Observed” essays and photos encourage readers to see familiar things in new ways. He is a volunteer for Arbor Hospice, and can be contacted at dennis.sparks@comcast.net.