Here is the translation: **Ripoll Cemetery opens a memorial space dedicated to perinatal grief

Ripoll (Girona), October 28, 2020. – From today, gestational and perinatal losses will have a special space at the Ripoll Cemetery. This new area allows families experiencing such losses to have a physical reference point where they can remember and pay tribute to their deceased child, while also addressing the emotional need arising from this type of grief. GIC de Nomber, the company concessionaire of the Ripoll Cemetery, part of the Àltima group, together with the city council, have created this memorial, the first of its kind in Ripollès. The official presentation took place this afternoon in a brief and reduced ceremony, considering current restrictions, and was attended by Ripoll's mayor, Jordi Munell, the Councilor for Health, Social Welfare, and the Elderly, Joan Maria Roig, as well as Àltima’s Cemetery area representatives, Joan Ventura and Lluís Brustenga, and Àltima’s representative in Ripollès, Juan Catalán.

Located at the center of the Ripoll Cemetery – at the end of Via A – in a secluded and intimate part of the grounds, the new space for gestational and perinatal grief consists of a plot where, as a funerary stele, a slab is placed with the inscription: “In memory of the children who, without being born, have left their mark, and in support of those who live with their memory.” The slab, donated by the Ripoll Museum, was part of a funerary structure from before the 12th century, originating from the parish cemetery located at the current Monastery Square of Santa Maria de Ripoll. Around this element, families who wish to can leave, as an offering and in memory of their deceased child, small colored stars, handcrafted with aggregates. These will allow the option of incorporating the baby’s ashes and engraving their name. As stated by the mayor of Ripoll, Jordi Munell, “Perinatal grief was a hidden grief, and with this space, we want to recognize it and help people navigate through it. This is a necessary, intimate, peaceful, and welcoming place dedicated to babies and their families, a space of remembrance where we invite families to come whenever they want, and where they can remember their children who have left too soon.”

For Joan Ventura, General Director of Àltima Cemeteries, with this memorial at the Ripoll Cemetery “we aim to address the emotional needs of many families who unfortunately go through a process of gestational or perinatal loss. This type of grief is considered very taboo in our society, so we believe that spaces like this can contribute to normalizing it and making it more visible, as they provide a physical reference point to remember the child who is no longer here.”