Violet's Legacy
Story told by mom, Makenzi
Picture: little sister Olive, with Violet's Forget-Me-Not Elephant
“I had a nearly perfect pregnancy. There were no complications other than that I had covid about halfway through. I got a checkup ultrasound because of that at the very beginning of my third trimester and everything was fine. The Friday before I delivered Violet, I noticed that she wasn’t moving around as much. I wasn’t having any pain and did see her little body push out against my stomach from time to time. The following Tuesday I went in for a routine checkup and very early signs of her arrival had begun at that point so my OB sent me to the hospital to see if my water broke. As my husband and I made our way to the hospital, bags in hand, fully anticipating bringing a baby home in the next few days. That was where the normalcy of expecting our first baby ended. We arrived at the hospital and a nurse tech came to me in triage with a Doppler and could not find a heartbeat. This wasn’t completely abnormal because it was usually hard for the doctor to find her heartbeat because she sat so low behind my hip. And I had just heard her heartbeat at the doctor 2 hours prior. That’s when my heart began to sink a little. They sent me down to a different room with an ultrasound and called a doctor in. The screen was turned away from me and my husband so I couldn’t see anything on the screen. After several minutes of looking at the ultrasound and not saying a word to us, the doctor called for another doctor to come down and said, “I need you down here now.” A few minutes later, about 5 doctors walked into my room, looked around at my ultrasound, still silent. When one finally said those words, “Your baby has no heartbeat.” After that moment began the worst and most beautiful days of my life. Once we were admitted, a nurse brought in a box with “Love. Lost. Remembered.” On the side of it. She went through some items but at that moment I felt like that box was staring me in the face, telling me that you lost your baby so here’s something to take home since you can’t take her home. I made my mom move the box so I couldn’t see it. I didn’t open that box again until several days after being home. I left it at my mom's house and once I finally went through it, I just sat and sobbed. Everything was so intentional. Since then, I have volunteered at Forget-Me-Not several times and sponsored more baskets and elephants that I can count. Serving there has brought me so much healing and has let me help other families going through their worst days. Forget-Me-Not is allowing Violet to leave a legacy bigger than I ever thought possible for her short life.
Violet’s elephant sits on a shelf with her urn and a picture. We put a purple bow on the elephant, and it has been a huge part of our family. We used to travel with it, we get pictures with it with our growing families. It helps us show that Violet will always be a huge part of our family, even though she is no longer with us earth side.”
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