Susan Ross gave birth to Marianne at 35 weeks. Just 20 minutes after her baby girl was born, she passed away. With such a short amount of time with her little one, she didn't have much to remember her daughter by. That's when a hospital staff member presented her with a box. Inside was her daughter's footprints, her bracelet, and a small knitted blanket made by Afghans for Angels.
Afghans for Angels' volunteers knit and donate blankets for stillborns. The small afghans are just the right size to wrap the infants in. They also give grieving parents something to hold onto. Ross' mother Mary Gilbaugh would see her daughter tenderly stroking the blanket. When the grandmother realized just how much it meant, she became a volunteer herself.
“They’re your children no matter how long they have been in your life," Ross told CBS. “It’s very hard to describe how this two-foot blanket could be so meaningful. And it’s something I hold as a memory to somebody who was in the blanket for just a few minutes.”
So often parents of stillborns go forgotten. Yet, their pain and mourning is profoundly unique and just as important. Afghans for Angels gives them a small comfort in a long healing process.
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