OLDS — About 100 people participated in the fifth annual Mountain View Hospice Society butterfly release, held July 13 adjacent to the red barn in the Olds College wetlands area.
Participants buy butterflies kept in little white boxes, then release them as they reflect on the passing of loved ones.
MVHS executive director Mary Marshall thanked thank Seasons Encore for being the title sponsor.
“With their sponsorship, we're able to pay for the facility, snacks, many things to enjoy this beautiful place here today,” she said.
“We would also like to thank our volunteers. They're the heart of Mountain View Hospice Society,” Marshall said.
“We have over 150 volunteers that support in many different ways, from client services to being on our board to serving on committees, to hanging posters to doing admin, so we're very grateful for our volunteers.”
Marshall outlined the reason for the gathering.
“Today, we will gather in remembrance of those we've loved and lost, to honour their memory, to find a sense of connection and hope with our community,” she said.
“This moment is to reflect, to remember and to celebrate the lives that have touched ours deeply.”
Marshall gave the first of several readings.
“I watched you breathe your final breath
so soft it barely stirred in the air.
“The room fell silent.
“All I could do was hold your hand as if that could keep you here.
“They say the soul is weightless, but mine felt heavy in that moment,
“as grief had settled in my bones like winter,” a portion of the reading said.
“And when I see a butterfly now, I let it break me open. I let it remind me that maybe just maybe, you're still here, wherever here is.
“and when it lands so gently on the edge of something fragile, like hope, I whisper, ‘I see you, I miss you.
‘I carry you, and I will love you until the day I too learn how to fly.’”
After a moment of silence, Seasons Olds Fun Manager Dawn Clayton read a poem aloud.
“I know how much It hurt your soul
“When we had to say goodbye
“But I'm not gone, I’m always here
“I’m your sweet little butterfly,” the poem read in part.
MVHS services coordinator Bridget Ryan read The Last Flight.
“A whisper in the morning air
“A soul, once heavy, now takes wing;
“A butterfly in early spring,
“The body stayed and breath is gone,” it said in part. “Love has not ended. It only changed its shape.”
MVHS business operations coordinator Charlene Wilson gave the final reading, A Butterfly Prayer.
“We gather here with tender hearts,
“Carrying memories of those we love
“Like the butterfly,
“who begins in stillness,
“wrapped in darkness,
“only to emerge transformed —
“may we too find light beyond this sorrow,” it read in part.
Then it was time to release the butterflies.
Marshall noted they are Painted Ladies, butterflies that are native to this area.
She also said bananas had been provided for the occasion because the word is that butterflies are attracted to them.
“If you want to grab one, maybe you can eat a little, maybe you can put a little banana on a flower or somewhere to kind of attract them,” she said.
“I do want to let you know that the butterflies are individuals. They're not all going to behave in the same way.
And that's very suiting, because our loved ones, they do not behave all the same. They are unique. They have their differences that make them the special person they are,” Marshall said.
Then it was time for participants to release butterflies they’d received in little white boxes. Violinist Jim Adamchick played soothing music as attendees as they did so.
Afterward, Marshall told the Albertan that before the event, she had been worried that the crowd might be the lowest they’d ever had – nowhere near 100.
“The registrations for the butterflies were only about 50 people about a week-and-a-half ago,” she said. “And then people just signed up. And people kept signing up for the butterflies.”
“In the end, we've had a lovely crowd.”
She said concern about what the weather might have been like could have been a factor in those initial low numbers.
Marshall admitted that summer can be a difficult time to stage events because people can also be busy with other things.
Given that, she was asked why the butterfly release is held in July, rather than the spring.
“More just for the weather, for the butterflies, so we can make sure it's consistent,” she said.
“In June, it might be a little cold and then they might not wake up, or there's more thunder showers or rainstorms, so we would worry about having to cancel it and rebook another date.
“But we found this weekend very stable; that we've always been able to release the butterflies without fail,” Marshall added.
“We had a cold year (when) it was like 10 degrees; that was borderline. We had a hot year that was 30, but we've always been able to complete our event; so we're keeping it the same.”
Marshall said money raised from purchasing butterflies to be released goes toward client services, but that’s not the main reason for the event.
“It's really about that community connection and us coming together in shared grief. It's very healing for people,” she said.
