DaLissa Spaeth tipped her small, pointed chin back while a cluster of pink balloons bobbed just over her head, thinking of the day she lost her daughter.

Her daughter, Kylee, was born on July 22, 2010.

The doctors said she would live for 30 minutes at the most, but she survived for three hours.

"Holding her was wonderful, but bittersweet," Spaeth said, her blue eyes filling with tears.

That day is still with Spaeth and her family, and on Monday evening, the Spaeths, along with a small group of people who have also lost infants, gathered to remember them on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day.

On that day in July, it wasn't until she was at the hospital that it sank in - her baby was only 21 weeks and her body was trying to deliver her. The doctors worked to stop the labor, but after hours, they told Spaeth there was nothing they could do.

Her first child would be born and would live for minutes, at best.

This can't be happening, Spaeth thought. "What did I do wrong?" The question hammered through her mind. When Kylee was born, Spaeth held her and read to her, savoring what little time they had.

After her daughter died, Spaeth and her friend Haley Arruda, also mourning the loss of her infant son, formed a local support group, Open Arms.

The group held their second annual balloon release at the Victoria Education Gardens on Monday evening. People selected a pastel-colored balloon and wrote a message to their lost child on the side of the balloon; messages of love and remembrance in bright-colored marker.

There were tears in Spaeth's eyes and her face was almost white as the time came to release the balloon.

Her husband, Paul, stood close beside her, holding their 14-month-old son, Mason, as they gathered around the fountain. The wind rustled pink and purple flowers in the garden and butterflies moved through the air in the fading, silver light of sunset.

The hands released their balloons on signal and the wind lifted the cluster into the sky. Spaeth watched three pink balloons with messages written in pink marker as they disappeared, silent.

"It's a very emotional day for us," Spaeth's mother, Wanda Flisowski said, watching her daughter, son-in-law and grandson.

The group started two years ago as a way to give people a place to go and people who would understand what they were going through, Arruda said.

Having people who know what this particular pain is like can help to get through it, Flisowski said. They talk about Kylee, determined to keep her memory alive, she said.

"We do this to let other families that are going through this know that they are not alone," Flisowski said, watching her daughter.

Spaeth's long, light brown hair fanned around her, stirred by the breeze. Everyone in the group stopped for a moment, watching the balloons. The balloons were spots of color, then dots, then lost in the expanse of sky.

• In the developed world:

  • An estimated 500,000 miscarriages happen each year.

  • One in every 148 babies are stillborn.

  • Three in every 1,000 babies die shortly after birth.

  • One in every three pregnancies ends in loss.

  Source: www.pilari.org