PERSPECTIVES
Healing and Hoping The Angel of Hope Memorial provides a space for parents to honor their lost children. By Hailey Almsted
24
December 2022
woodburymag.com
Photo: Lynne Sonnek
“THE FIRST GIFT OF CHRISTMAS
was love. A parent’s love. Pure as the first snows of Christmas,” writes Richard Paul Evans in The Christmas Box. In The Christmas Box (Simon & Schuster, 1995), a woman mourns the death of her daughter by visiting her grave, marked by an angel statue. Following reports that grieving parents were searching out the statue, Evans had one commissioned in Salt Lake City in 1994. Now, there are more than 120 statues across the nation. Natalie Ann Valitchka, daughter of Julie and Jeff Rageth, passed away at age 32 in 2020. She attended school in Duluth, a city she loved. “She was fun-loving, beautiful and, simply put, a most wonderful person,” Julie Rageth says. To honor Natalie’s birthday in June 2021, Rageth and her sister, Jill Strand, as well as Jill’s daughter, Samantha, visited Duluth. “Jill, Samantha and I took a walk … It was a beautiful morning across from Lake Superior. Up on the right were beautiful lilacs and a statue of an angel with a girl’s face,” Rageth says. “We noticed the children’s names around the angel, and we were really touched by it. We painted a rock and put Natalie’s name on it, and left it by the angel.” Andra Sonnek, daughter of Lynne and Rick Sonnek, passed away at the age of 24 in 2019. “She was spirited, passionate and kind hearted,” Lynne Sonnek says. Rageth and Sonnek connected at Strand’s gym, UpLift Guided Fitness, where the two connected on a deeper level. “... You build a greater connection when you lose a child,” Rageth says. “They were very excited about the angel,” Sonnek recalls. “The feeling you get when you get up to the angel is just awe and comforting, and peaceful knowing that there’s somewhere you can go to read the children’s names and remember them … So we decided to go to the City of
