Life is a funny thing sometimes

This was the opening sentence of an email my very good friend Clare sent me today.

So...here's the thing. I subscribe to Bloglines which is a great way of checking which of the blogs I read and enjoy have been updated since I previously looked. There is a bit of a phenomena with Bloglines though. If you update your blog and then change your mind about your post and delete it, Bloglines will still register it and it can be read via that website (so be careful what you post - LOL!)

Anyway...about a week and a half ago someone whose blog I read had written a message and then changed her mind and posted about something else instead. However, I read the original post in Bloglines and followed the link she had put in her message. It is a very moving and somewhat upsetting link, and yet uplifting as well in a way. But very emotional. Perhaps that's why she changed her mind about posting it, and why I didn't post about it either at the time.

Blair Blanks is a professional photographer of (mostly) babies and children in the States. She had obviously had a colleague present at the birth of her second child, when the very worst thing happened and her baby was stillborn. The cord had become tangled around his neck. This link is a montage that they put together of that day.

http://www.blairblanks.com/jameshudson/james.exe

Well, as I said, the person who originally blogged about this changed her mind but I still saw it. Of course it moved me deeply and I thought, "There but for the grace of God go I."

I felt I should send this link to my friend Clare, who works as Sister of a Special Care Baby Unit. She's very very good at and very passionate about her job, and we have talked in the past about the important things they do as a staff to preserve memories for parents if one of their babies dies. She told me in reply how lovely the montage was and what a treasure it would be for that family.

Today I received another email from her. She said:

"The photographs you sent me the other week were very touching, but I am rarely in such proximity to a whole family if their baby is dying. We have a private room they can spend as much time in alone as they want to. However, last Weds we had a baby who only lived 2 hours. Mum had had a section so was unable to come up to us. Dad really wanted Mum to be able to hold Baby while he was still alive so I put Baby into our transport incubator and went down to Labour Ward with the consultant. I had the presence of mind to grab our digital camera. I then found myself in the same position as that photographer present at the still birth. I spent a good hour in the room with mum, dad and Baby taking lots of photos - inspired by the images I'd seen. The parents were so grateful it was overwhelming....

"You know I don't know what I believe in the grand scheme of things but I can't help but feel you sent me that email so I could help that family. Was an amazing experience."

I don't know what else to say really to finish this story. I'm moved beyond words.