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Jill Duggar Reunites With Parents Michelle and Jim Bob for Stillborn Daughter’s Memorial Service
Jill Dillard (neé Duggar) reunited with her parents, Michelle Duggar and Jim Bob Duggar, for the memorial of her stillborn daughter, Isla Marie.
“Isla Marie Dillard, ‘planted on earth to bloom in heaven,’” Jill, 32, captioned a carousel of photos on Wednesday, April 24. “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made… (Psalm 139:13-14).”
The Counting On alum and her husband, Derick Dillard, hosted a funeral service for their family on April 19. In the snaps, many members of her large family, including Michelle, 57, and Jim Bob, 58, were present as they released pink balloons in honor of baby No. 4.
Fans were initially unsure if Jill’s parents would be present at the memorial due to their estrangement over the last year following Jill and Derick’s participation in the Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets documentary and their memoir, Counting the Cost. However, Michelle and Jim Bob can be spotted in the photos as they observed the balloons being released into the air.
Jill and Derick, 35, first announced the heartbreaking news about their baby’s death via Instagram on April 13. “Jill was 4 months pregnant (due in August) when we found out that our baby died in utero,” the couple, who wed in 2014, shared in a joint post. “From the moment we found out we were pregnant, we couldn’t wait to meet our baby. Isla was much loved from the start, and her 3 big brothers were so excited to introduce her to their world. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to grieve and heal from the loss of our little Isla Marie.”
The couple are already parents to sons, Israel, Samuel and Frederick, and Isla would’ve been Jill and Derick’s fourth child and first daughter. The pair had not publicly announced the pregnancy before the stillbirth. It isn’t the couple’s first loss as Jill also miscarried a baby named River in 2021 and later opened up about her deep-rooted fears about not being able to have as many children as she originally thought she would in Counting the Cost. After her memoir was released in September 2023, Jill recalled a conversation with her dad, where she opened up about growing a large family.
“In the book, I talk about the shift of going from feeling that pressure, being OK with having a lot of children, in that belief system that I grew up in,” the mom of three explained on Christy Carlson Romano‘s “Vulnerable” podcast in October 2023. “To then having the shift of being like, ‘Do I trust in God with the number of children that I’m supposed to have?’ could also mean trusting Him if he doesn’t give us 20 kids.”
Derick also mentioned the “toxic” hierarchy in the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) religion, where you’re seen as “less if you have less kids.”
“But even your parents have said, ‘Whoever has the most kids gets the house,’” he continued. However, Jill emphasized that her mom and dad were “half-joking.”
