Auburn University held a memorial service for students who passed away this year. The students honored at the memorial service were Maura Bruck, Justin Bryant, Leslie Burnett, Ryan Frazier, Hope Johnson, Adam Miller, Jakell Mitchell, Thomas Osborne, Sarah Roberts and Meghan Wilson.
According to Katherine Hettinger, coordinator of case management and student advocacy, the school gives a memorial service once per year to honor all students who have passed away. This is the fourth year they have had the ceremony.
“I had met with a couple of the students beforehand,” Hettinger said. “I wouldn’t say that I had a super personal relationship with them, but I knew who they were and so when I was informed they had passed away I was like ‘Oh my, I know that student.’”
According to Hettinger, the hardest part of planning the ceremony is emotionally preparing for the ceremony and the fact parents will come in their in various stages of grief. She said the parents usually get sad and emotional during the ceremony, so being able to support them while they’re grieving is the hardest part.
There was a candle lighting section of the ceremony for each student. Hettinger said they asked the family to designate who they wanted to light the candle. It was usually a parent or a sibling. She said there were two families who couldn’t make it because it was too painful, so they gave her permission to ask someone to light the candle or picked a friend.
Duncan Emory, junior in industrial design, said he thinks it is great the school is acknowledging
Emory, said he was there because he knew Meghan Wilson.
“It was really good,” Emory said. “The man over Student Affairs (Bobby Woodard) had a good speech, it was a good closing for everything.”
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