In Memory of Matilda Mae

I've thought about writing this post for a few days now.  I was put off by what people might think - writing about the death of a baby I never knew.  Now I think, so what?  This is my blog and this is a post I want to write.

So here it is.

It's true, I didn't know Matilda Mae.  I don't know her lovely mother, Jennie, nor the rest of her devoted family.  But I feel like I do.

I think this is true of a lot of people who follow Jennie's blog.

We don't know her, but the way she writes draws you in. 

Jennie has shared her pain with us since the night Matilda Mae died and we have all tried to help her shoulder it, in whatever small way we can.

It will never be enough.

It will never bring back Matilda Mae, which is what we all want.

But it is something.

We have watched, in awe, as Jennie continues her journey through grief, somehow managing to constantly think of others; already having raised a small fortune in her daughter's name.

We have watched and we have vowed to contribute.

We will donate and pledge and just remember.

Matilda Mae's death has not been for nothing.  Her memory will save many other children, of that I am sure.

And she has made me a better mother, for every time one of my children asks me to play, I think of Baby Tilda and I say yes. 

I know that Jennie, through her articulation of what has happened to her, has taught people to remember that they have the world right there in their arms.

They say that you don't know what you have until it's gone. The sad thing is that Jennie did know what she had, and she cherished it every day, yet Baby Tilda was still taken.

Sometimes, life is a bitch.