Running in Remembrance

Chances are, if you've had any sort of somewhat-lengthy conversation with me in the past 4-5 months, the topic of Matt, Liz, and Madeline Logelin has come up.

Who are these people, you may ask? Well, Matt & Liz are MN natives, and Madeline is their baby that was born on March 24th, 2008. I won't go into the details (read further here) but long story short, Liz was in the hospital on bedrest (low amniotic fluid, cord was around baby's neck) for quite some time (2 weeks at home, 3 in the hospital).

Happy story since I already mentioned that the baby was born, right?

Wrong.

March 25th. 27 hours after the birth of a premature, but, in general, healthy baby. Then this post. An obituary for Liz. Devastating story. The morning after the baby was born, the nurse came to bring Liz to meet her daughter for the first time. Liz stood up, commented on being lightheaded, and passed out. Doctors and nurses rushed to help her, but nothing could be done - she had died from a pulmonary embolism.

Can you even imagine? How does a husband and new father deal with the death of his wife while caring for a newborn, premature infant? It's probably one of the most heartbreaking stories I've ever heard. Unfortunately, there are probably stories of others out there who have lived through something similar.

Matt has blogged about his experience from day one. The posts are raw and unedited - he leaves nothing out. The birth of his daughter is bittersweet - it's something Matt & his wife had dreamed about, but now she's not here to share in the joy of raising a child. The blog is definitley worth checking out, though (here). Warning, there is some explicit language used (like I said, it's raw & unedited). Matt has a captivated audience that stretches not only across the US, but across the world from Europe to Asia. He already had tremendous support from family/friends, but now he has a sea of readers that are praying for him & encouraging him to keep on keepin' on. That's pretty powerful.

Which brings me to the subject of this post. A group of ladies in Minneapolis have taken it upon themselves to help Matt & Madeline, as well as other widows/widowers experiencing the same thing. (see here for more info on what they've been doing). An informal Memorial 5k Walk/Run has been organized for Sunday, September 21st (Liz's bday would have been Sept 17). Everyone who follows the blog is encouraged to walk at 1 pm in their respective time zones in memory of Liz. Since Matt & Liz were from Minneapolis, there is quite a following here (plus there was a front page article in the Sunday Strib back in April). So the Minneapolis blog followers will be walking around Lake Calhoun; Matt and Madeline will be there walking with Liz & Matt's parents who still reside in Minneapolis. You can just walk, or you can also donate $7 that will help Matt/Madeline and other young widows/widowers in similar situations (7 was Liz's lucky/favorite number).

A run around Lake Calhoun is pretty much part of every weekend these days now that I'm training for a 1/2 marathon, so I plan on being there to show my support. If anyone would like to join me, let me know! Otherwise, if we could all keep this young father/widower in our prayers, that would be great.