Text Box: Text Box: Letter on the back of the funural programText Box: Dear Family and Friends : Thank you so much for coming here today to help us celebrate the life of our daughter and sister, Gemma Therese Holihen. While our hearts are broken at giving her up, we feel blessed to have had her in our lives. She has changed us forever, and we want to share with you both our sorrow and our joy. We wanted also to tell you a bit about Gemma's story and the journey that has brought us to this day. We have known since early May that Gemma was not destined to be with us for very long. Even though we knew that Gemma may only live for a very short time, as her parents, we wanted to give her everything that we could, most importantly the Sacrament of Baptism, and we wanted to hold on to the hope that she may be one of those 10% with Trisomy 13 who do make it. We have spent these last 5 months enjoying what we could of Gemma's time with us: her kicks, her punches, her hiccups, and just knowing that she was with us. We have also been grieving and preparing to let her go. And, along the way, we have learned a lot about love, strength, and friendship. Gemma was born at 12:38 P.M. on September 8, 2005. She weighed 5 lbs and 6 oz and was 16 1/2 inches long. She stayed with us for 52 minutes, in the loving arms of family and friends. This was in itself a miracle -- the "little miracle" that we had hoped and prayed for all along. Gemma breathed on her own, she cried at first and she moved her little hands. We have been blessed with many pictures and many memories of our beautiful Gemma. While we are grieving her loss, we are also relieved and at peace. We are blessed with a Saint in heaven who we know will pray for all of us on our journeys of life. We have experienced so much love and support throughout this part of our journey. We know that this is a never-ending journey. Gemma is a part of our lives forever, and we will always miss her. We know that we will need your continued love and support for many days and years to come. The times that you have spent talking, crying and just being with us have helped sustain us and we know that we will really need more of those times from you as the weeks and months go by. Today is a celebration of Gemma's life and of the love and friendship that have brought us all together. Thank you for sharing this with us. We love you all so very much. love, Terry, Courtney and family HomeNextBack