Loss

I can't get this out of my head so I decided to write about it and am hoping I make no mistakes in the telling of this devastating loss.

One of my best friend's lost a friend yesterday under very tragic circumstances. All death is sad but this one hits a bit harder than most. You see, her friend Jewelyn and her husband Phillip went in to have their baby girl Gabrielle and this happy and excited time turned into a situation that you think only happens in movies, books, or tv...not to your friend. She needed an emergency C-section due to a drop in her own heart rate and at that time she suffered an amniotic embolism and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and lost all brain activity. Her husband had an agonizing decision to make. At 11:30 am Sunday September 27th, 2009 they shut off life support and she passed away. I believe she never laid eyes on her daughter. Gabrielle (I hear) is at UCLA where she was transferred after delivery and is doing well. Thank god for that.

I have never met this woman. I have only heard her name mentioned or seen it on Bestie Jenn's Facebook page. A comment on a status, a retelling of something said on their board on the nest, is all I knew of her, til yesterday. I've seen pictures, read stories, heard stories all about this wonderful woman and how this world is less bright without her in it. It makes me cry and makes my heart ache to know that her daughter will never met her mother and that her husband has to know the joy of having a child born and the anguish of losing his soul mate all in the same day. Two events that should not be linked. It's very similar to my friend Matt's situation (www.mattlogelin.com) who lost his wife 27 hours after the birth of his little girl Madeline.

Why the fuck does this happen? It makes NO sense. I know it could drive a person crazy trying to figure out the answer to that but I can't help it. So many things happen in this world that I just don't understand. Things that I wish so badly I could fix. But I can't and that's a horrible feeling. What I CAN do, is get with the amazing women who are already working on how to make this terrible, painful time a smidge better/easier for this family. And I will. You can help too...even if you can't donate money, please say a prayer, send some love their way (I can get the p.o. box if you want it) it's all good.

Also, as cheesy as this sounds, don't take life or the people you love for granted and know that tomorrow is never guaranteed.