Monica Anderson named Women’s History Month Game Changers honoree

DETROIT – Monica Anderson’s Remembering Cherubs organization offers support, guidance and validation for community members amid tremendous loss.

Anderson is this year’s first Women’s History Month honoree in the Ilitch Sports + Entertainment Game Changers series, which celebrates community members making a profound difference in Detroit. In partnership with Comerica Bank, the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers recognize one Game Changers honoree per week during select months.

Remembering Cherubs seeks to fill the gap of resources and available information about miscarriages and infant loss. The organization was founded in 2019 by Anderson following an unfortunate miscarriage that occurred 22 years after she lost her infant son.

“My infant son died in my arms shortly after birth, and there just was no guidance on how to navigate life without this baby that you were planning to have and nothing to address my grief,” Anderson said. “There wasn't really any social support.”

Anderson’s experience navigating her own loss is what inspires her every day to bridge the informational gap. She said she remembers not being able to find many online search results for miscarriages in Michigan. Eventually, she was connected to the Perinatal Infant Reproductive Loss committee at Michigan Medicine.

“I met with the co-chair, and she invited me to be on the committee. They're kind of a working group within the hospital that acknowledges perinatal loss and just figure out how they can support parents,” Anderson said. “At first it was intimidating, but then it's like I'm the expert in the room because of my experience.”

According to Remembering Cherubs’ website, it’s estimated that 23,000 miscarriages occur in Michigan each year, and out of every 1,000 babies born alive, more than six die before their first birthday. The sheer number of individuals affected inspired Anderson to write her own book, The Pregnancy Loss Guidebook.

“I started hosting focus group sessions with parents,” Anderson said. “What information did you want after your loss that you didn't have? What topics were people not talking about with you? What were your experiences that you wish you had some guidance on? I used those answers to shape the chapters of the guidebook.”

Within each statistic, there are incredible individual stories. Anderson recalled a 78-year-old woman that recognized her from a TV news appearance and wanted to share her own story of loss at a Remembering Cherubs event.

“[The woman] said, ‘When I was 16 years old, I had a loss. I wasn't able to acknowledge that baby. There was no support. My parents never wanted me to have the baby, so I was just caught up on my own. And all these years, I've had this grief that I had nowhere to take,’” Anderson said. “She named her baby that night and got to release years and years of grief. Whether you had the loss a month ago or a decade ago, Remembering Cherubs is a space to say your grief is valid, your pain is valid.”

Through Remembering Cherubs, Anderson has addressed years of concealed pain through in-person events and online Care Concierge on Remembering Cherubs’ website.

Ilitch Sports + Entertainment is proud to recognize Anderson as a Game Changers honoree during Women’s History Month for her extremely important work in the community.

“Losing my babies was the greatest pain that I've ever experienced, but I've been able to turn it into purpose, to help other people, so to be recognized for that as a maternal health leader in the community is an honor,” Anderson said. “I feel like that’s what being a Game Changer means to me. I could have continued on that path of just harboring that bitterness and just still being kind of in that lost state, but I turned my pain into purpose.”