Child Loss - Stories of Hope

Is This Really Happening? Our Hearts Were Broken....

by Eddie & Mary Grampp

Founders & podcast hosts of 'Praiseworthy with Mary & Eddie'

We go into further detail of losing a child in Episode #3 on the podcast. 

   

       On August 12th, 2015 Mary felt impressed to take our three kids to the park.  She was six months pregnant at the time and while she was beginning to feel more tired now that she was in the third trimester of pregnancy she felt that she should go have some fun with our children.  While at the park Mary ran into a friend from our church so all of our kids played together for awhile.  Mary remembers that one thing all of the kids were doing was burying a little stuffed animal dog.  After going home McKaylee wanted to watch quite a few Disney movies, Christmas specials, it was just a sweet afternoon as home.  Eddie came home from work for lunch and we remember McKaylee wanting to snuggle both of us.  For dinner Mary made pizza, and then they decided to go outside and enjoy the last evenings of summer before school started again the following week, and also to wait for Eddie to come home from work.  Our oldest child, "little Eddie", was watching T.V. inside and Mary took Jacob and McKaylee outside to play.  We saw Daddy driving up the street so Mary told the kids to stay away from the driveway.  As he pulled into the driveway we all waived at him, and even though McKaylee wanted to run and see him Mary contiued to tell her she had to wait for Daddy to park.  Mary said it felt like minutes had gone bye, she had been talking to a neighbor, and then glanced over to the driveway and saw McKaylee standing there staring at me with the most precious smile.  She was waiting so patiently to go see her Daddy, so Mary told her it was okay to go see him now (she had assumed he had parked by then).  All of the sudden she heard Eddie screaming McKaylee's name, so Mary rushed as fast as she could down the driveway and saw McKaylee laying on the garage floor.  She thought her water had broke so she remembers seeing McKaylee and screaming and at the same time telling Eddie that she thinks her water had broke.
* We encourage you to listen to our podcast, Episode #3 of 'Our Story' where we talk about the tragic passing of our sweet McKaylee, and go into some details about the events that took place after that horrible day.  We feel that you being able to hear our actual voices telling this story makes it more personal.  We also talk about the birth of our 4th child, Molly, who could not have come in a more needed time in our lives.  
      What followed after the most horrible day of our lives was nothing but beautiful, humbling, and incredibly tender.  Being able to welcome our little Molly just three months after McKaylee passed away was the perfect thing our family and families needed.  She was our rainbow baby, and brought so much joy into our lives when joy was needed every single day.  We are just so grateful we followed our prompting to get pregnant with her when we did.  Another beautiful thing was that the fire department held an in-house fundraiser for our family, a couple of sweet friends put together a fundraiser that reached people from all over!  We were able to pay for McKaylee's funeral expenses, purchase two additional plots next to where she is now buried, and use the rest of the money to pay off medical expenses as well as other expenses.  The boys' elementary school arrainged meals to be brought to our family for a couple of months after the accident with McKaylee. We were so touched and grateful, really there is no word to describe how much that meant to our family.  Thank you to EVERYONE in the Burbank community who wrapped us in their arms during such a difficult time.  Our hearts will always be with you.
         Each year now on McKaylee's birthday we call it "Angel Day" and encourage others to do an act of service in her honor.  We know that this is what she wants us to do on her birthday instead of focusing on her not being here physically anymore, instead focus on just being kind to ourselves and others. As we continue to honor her each birthday, as well as on the day she passed away, (August 12th), it continues to bless our lives and hopefully the lives of others.