It was a dedication to the babies that will never be, the unborn eggs and embryos that were lost in a storage tank error at the University Hospitals fertility clinic.
Flowers of all colors surrounded a memorial bench. There are words all around it, but on top it reads, "Our hopes and dreams lost."
"It still feels surreal," Jeremy Plants said. "That's part of the reason with the memorial. Something to anchor ourselves onto to where we can start the closure process, somewhere to grieve."
On Saturday, parents who had hoped of have children naturally gathered at the Woodvale Cemetery in Middleburg Heights. For many, that hope is now gone.
Kate and Jeremy Plants, who can no longer have children after losing five of their embryos in the malfunction, organized the memorial.
"We're here to honor the loss of our embryos and other people's eggs which represented to us future children, and this is just somewhere where we can remember them and we can say like you were here, you mattered," Kate Plants said.
In March, a storage tank holding over 4,000 eggs and embryos at University Hospitals overheated, and every single potential child inside was lost.
Since then, UH has apologized, but on Friday afternoon, the hospital entered a motion with the court to have lawsuits filed against it dismissed. The hospital said there were no expert opinions listed in the filings.
An attorney representing nearly 200 couples said the hospital likely wants patients to sue for malpractice, since the caps on the alliances and statue of limitations is shorter.
The Plants said this adds insult to injury.
"I think they're trying to make this go away," Kate Plants said. "They're just trying to pretend like this didn't happen."
UH's actions aside, the couple said remembering their loss is what is most important.
"It's breathtaking," Kate Plants said. "It feels really validating that they were as important to us as this beautiful memorial shows."
