We, Matt and Ellen Kelly, found ourselves living an unimaginable reality no one should have to endure. In May 2021, Ellen was in a severe car accident. While Ellen has mostly recovered, due to her being very late in her pregnancy and the trauma from the accident, our daughter Kennedy Marie was subsequently born through emergency surgery. We surely had a fighter, who lived, so we were able to meet her and briefly experience what it was like to be parents to our first child: a beautiful baby girl. Unfortunately, due to the injuries from the accident, her body slowly started to shut down towards no recovery, eventually resulting in her passing away, peacefully, in Matt’s arms.
Over these past several years, we have coped with our loss with the help of a strong support system consisting of our family, friends, fellow loss parents and several staff members at INOVA. While learning more about our grief journey, we have identified opportunities where grieving parents and their loved ones could use additional support in not only understanding and coping with their loss, but ensuring they have the support they need to navigate life after losing a child.
This fund will initially provide ongoing Perinatal Bereavement training for hospital staff. It is imperative for all team members that interact with families know how to provide respectful compassionate care and communicate in a way that is comforting given the circumstances.
This fund will also provide support for loss families, including supplies for memory making opportunities such as handprints and photographs. It will also allow for the continuation of annual events to honor our loved ones. We also seek to provide specific resources to families for when they leave the hospital without their child. By sharing our story, our hope is that we can comfort others and assure them that they are not alone.
Our inspiration behind this fund came from other loss families’ creation of “Butterfly Suites”. We were drawn to this concept initially since the symbol that resonates with us for Kennedy is a butterfly. These hospital suites are set up to look like nurseries, so people can take photos and soak in being a parent in a more relaxed setting, giving parents special memories with their children who will never leave the hospital. Our ultimate goal is to provide families with the space they need to process the initial shock and devastation of their loss. Training and materials provided by this fund will enable staff members to ensure families are able to create memories given the constraints of being in a medical setting. This opportunity will give families meaningful memories for a lifetime.
We want Kennedy’s legacy to live on by impacting as many families as possible. Together, we can ensure every family knows their child is seen, remembered, and loved. Thank you to everyone for being a small part of something we hope will be monumental in the years to come!
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