Healing Hope Ministries brings Walk to Remember to Garretson

            The Walk to Remember that was held at the Garretson Sport’s Complex this past Saturday was the first event in Garretson to be hosted by Healing Hope Ministries.

            “It was the perfect setting today for a memorial walk, people supporting each other,” said Kris Frerk. “The children we’ve lost are in a better place, but we still miss them.”

            Denny and Karri Allen founded Healing Hope Ministries in 2016. They lost their own son back in 2012, after Denny had returned from a nasty tour in Iraq and had been working at Alliance Communications.

            “I was in a pretty dark place,” he said. “I most certainly had PTSD from the bloodshed I saw in Iraq. You see that kind of thing and you’re never quite the same. I did my best, and I did what they sent me there to do, but when they say war is hell, they are right. I had PTSD and I wasn’t dealing with it, and then we lost our son Asher. It was too much.”

            Allen said he’s not afraid to say he needed help. And Karri got that help from a place called Smile Again Ministries in Cross Lake, MN.

            “I wasn’t ready for it, but it’s what I needed,” he said. “There aren’t any easy answers, I certainly don’t have any. There never are any reasons for why bad things like this happen. There is no answer in this world you can give to a parent that lost a child that will satisfy them. The only thing I’ve learned, is that we’re not alone on this journey. We need to be transparent, open and honest with ourselves and our loved ones. And a burden carried together, a burden shared, is burden lessened. That and my faith, has helped me more than I can say.”

            This is why he and Karri formed Healing Hope Ministries, so that they could do the same for others with the same pain they felt.

            “We felt called to do it,” he said. “It was a risk, sure. But we both felt called to do it, because we’d learned so much, we figured we could use what we’d learned to help other people dealing with the same sorts of loss we felt.”

            Their non-profit does everything from grief groups meeting over coffee, to retreats and walks just like this one. This was their 6th walk of this season, with others in Tea, Winner, Madison, and Alcester to name a few.

            “It’s human nature to shy away from grief and sadness,” he said. “The problem is that people then tend to get isolated. The social cues are that, this person is grieving, so we should leave them alone and the person grieving may not want to deal with other people. They should have that space, sure, but we don’t want that to turn into isolation. And people who are isolated tend to shut down and more and more problems can pile up. That’s why these walks are so important. Members of the community who’ve had a loss can see each other, and know they can support each other. They can walk together awhile and it helps make them stronger, especially to know that though they may be hurting, they’re not ever alone.”

            These are the names of the children that were honored at this event: