- The Glass family raised $80,000 through Emerson's Rae of Light Foundation to provide a bereavement room and cuddle cots to hospitals.
- A cuddle cot is a special device that helps preserve a baby’s body, allowing parents to spend precious time with their child after a stillbirth or miscarriage.
- Watch the video to understand why these services are so essential after a loss.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A Thomasville mother tells me she took the worst day of her life and turned her grief into purpose, raising more than $80,000 to help other families who've lost a child.
I'm showing you how her daughter's memory is now making a difference for grieving families in South Georgia.
" It's such a silent thing. People are expected to grieve alone. And you don't bring attention to it because people have differing opinions. And so we're excited to kind of, you know, we've always been very open with our story and with our daughter. And we want other families to feel the same and have that community and just come together," said Glass.
Kaleigh Glass and her husband lost their daughter Emerson Rae five years ago.
That heartbreak led her to start the Emerson Rae Foundation—a nonprofit that supports grieving families and brings awareness to pregnancy and infant loss.
This year, they hosted their very first fundraiser: Hops for Healing.
"In a typical fundraising campaign, we might have a lot of people that want to have something named in memory or in honor of somebody. So we knew that when we were planning for this new maternity center, we didn't have a bereavement room in our current facility," said Middleton.
Vann Middleton, president of the Archbold Foundation, tells me they're now in the process of upgrading their maternity wing, which is over 90 years old and lacks a dedicated space for grieving families.
That's where the Glass family stepped in.
"She and I were talking, Kayleigh and I were talking about this gift. I said to them, well, if you raise $25,000 and want to name this new bereavement room in memory of your child, that would be wonderful," said Middleton.
Alisha Gainous, Nurse Manager at Archbold, says a bereavement room gives families the privacy they need to say goodbye.
"If mom needs a change of scenery and she wants to walk out of her room out of labor and delivery and go visit family just to get a break, she is able to go and not have to worry about everybody seeing her. We offer just that little bit of privacy," said Gainous.
After losing Emerson, the Glass family donated a cuddle cot to Archbold, giving parents more time with their babies.
Now, with the $80,000 they've raised, they hope to provide cuddle cots—each costing around $10,000—to hospitals across South Georgia.
"You can't get that time back. That's the only time that a parent or family has with their baby, and so you can't get that back. So the cuddle cot that was donated to Archibald after Emerson has helped numerous families be able to gain more time with their babies and make those memories, and that is something we want to continue," said Gainous.
Middleton tells me the bereavement room will open in couple of months.
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