After baby's death, woman collects donations for grieving mothers

After baby's death, woman collects donations for grieving mothers

(Devey family photo)


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PLEASANT GROVE — William Paul lived for 30 minutes after his birth, but his mother wants his memory to live on much, much longer.

At 21, Patricia Devey had been married about a year when she found out she was expecting. When she was 25 weeks pregnant, an accident at work sent her to the hospital, where she was misdiagnosed with a kidney infection. A little more than 24 hours later, doctors performed an emergency cesarean section, delivering a 1-pound 5-ounce baby boy named William. He died 30 minutes later, before Devey could hold him alive.

“The next morning, I had the funeral home show up and they brought me my baby. I’m sitting there, and I’m planning my son’s funeral. It wasn’t really a big deal at the time; I just mentally wasn’t all there,” Devey said. “But as I’m leaving the hospital the next morning and on my way to the funeral home, I’m realizing I’m leaving with contact information for a funeral home. I’m not leaving with my child. It kind of hit me really hard.”

Now 28, Devey has started to collect donations for mothers of stillborns or babies like William who die just after birth.

“When you leave the hospital in that time, you leave not feeling like yourself. You leave with very few memories and they’re some of the hardest memories of your life,” Devey said.

Mothers of Angels collection
Saturday, Oct. 19 at 10 a.m.- 1 p.m.
American Income for Life
7938 S. 3500 East B300, Cottonwood
Collection Items
Baskets, chapstick, lotion, body products, bubble bath, beauty and massage services

For several years, Devey celebrated William’s birth with flowers on his grave and by giving a toy away to a child who would have been her son’s peer. In September, as she was looking at Walmart for a toy to donate, Devey determined she wanted to do more for people facing a similar situation. She is collecting gift certificates for massages, hair and nail appointments, body products like chapstick, body wash, bubble bath and nail polish for other women.

“Being able to make it so they have simple little memories,” Devey said. “Being able to go out before the funeral and have your hair done — just so that you feel a little bit more normal — you’re almost better off. It’s just to make yourself feel as normal as you possibly can when your whole world has turned upside down completely.”

For her, the collection is a way to give grieving women a shred of normalcy and honor her son.

“It’s based purely on the fact that Will’s birth and his death needed to mean something. It’s kind of to bring his legacy back around,” Devey said. “Every year for his birthday, we’ve always done a dump truck full of flowers and every year, it feels so, so insignificant. I always feel like it’s not enough. And that’s where all of this has come from is making it so it is enough.”

“My son was the best thing that ever happened to me, ever. He was an amazing, amazing little boy who I spent 25 weeks with. I got that time with him. Do I wish I had more? Do I wish his birthday wasn’t celebrated at the cemetery? Yes. ... He’s my dude. He’s my little man. That’s really all there is to it.”

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Celeste Tholen Rosenlof

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