Donations for grieving mothers head to hospitals

Donations for grieving mothers head to hospitals

(Patricia Devey family photo)


5 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — More than 40 grieving mothers will receive gift baskets in memory of one baby boy who passed away seven years ago.

Saturday, Patricia Devey held a donation drive to collect items for mothers of stillborn babies. Devey collected body products, journals, pens, photo albums and picture frames, among other items for grieving mothers. This week, she will drop off about 40 baskets worth of goodies to Timpanogos Hospital in Orem as well as the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo for the hospitals to distribute.

Devey held the fundraiser as a way to honor the memory of her son, William Paul, who died 30 minutes after his birth. She never got to hold her baby boy alive, but she has determined to keep her memory of him alive by giving to other mothers experiencing a similar loss.

She plans to hold another drive in Utah Valley during December and hopes it will be more successful than the first, giving her a chance to impact the lives of more women in Utah.

“I definitely feel like we’re on our way to doing that. I feel like there’s been a lot of good that has come out of this,” Devey said. “Being able to help so many other moms is always a good thing.”

Mothers have reached out to her in a way she didn’t expect, as well: women have reached out to her on social media.

“These moms just need someone to talk to and they just feel like they can’t talk to anybody else,” Devey said.

She encourages mothers of stillborn babies to find a support group, as she has, to talk to about their grief. She has found help on social media, but also in her service.

“Will’s going to be remembered,” she said.

Information about future collections or donating can be found on Facebook.

Photos

Related stories

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

UtahLifestyleFamily
Celeste Tholen Rosenlof

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast