A Healing Net
When a dear friend and her newborn were hospitalized and in intensive care, I found a way for loved ones to stay informed and updated about their condition.
By Sona MehringEagan, Minnesota
Darrin and JoAnn are two of my closest friends. So when JoAnn suffered a difficult pregnancy, I wanted to help them somehow. Their baby Brighid was born extremely premature and was in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. JoAnn was also in critical condition. Darrin spent nearly 24 hours a day at the hospital. “What can I do?” I asked him.
“Just let everyone know what’s going on,” Darrin said. They had a lot of friends and relatives spread out all across the world, wanting to know what was happening, wanting to send their love and support. But Darrin was so occupied with everything, he couldn’t keep retelling the story. There had to be an easy way to keep everyone informed and show support for Darrin and JoAnn without overwhelming them and the hospital staff.
I ran a consulting company that produced websites for small businesses and organizations. What if there were a website where Darrin and JoAnn’s friends and relatives could go to share their messages and find out how JoAnn and Brighid were doing? It could save a bunch of phone calls, to be sure. And Darrin and JoAnn could check it when they were able to. I set up the site that night, with Darrin’s blessing. At the bottom of the page I inserted a guestbook so that people could type messages and prayers.
JoAnn needed her rest, so the doctors unplugged her phone and limited her visiting hours. But the website allowed everyone to stay in touch and updated, without intruding. Every day I updated it with news about JoAnn and Brighid’s conditions. And the messages started pouring in. One of JoAnn’s uncles, living in Switzerland, was happy he could feel connected to what was going on. “Finally a good use for the Internet,” he wrote. I printed out the prayers and messages from the website for Darrin and JoAnn to read. “It helps so much to know that there are people out there praying for Brighid and me,” JoAnn said. “People I can picture in my mind.”
JoAnn steadily improved, but Brighid’s condition was a rollercoaster. After nine days of fighting, she died. As much as the website had been great for keeping people updated, I worried it might seem like a terrible place to tell about something so tragic. But having to call everyone—all the extended family, far-off friends and others who had reached out through the website—seemed just as heartbreaking. I posted the sad announcement. JoAnn and Darrin left a message on the site, thanking everyone for their support: “Brighid left us after a nine-day struggle against tremendous odds. Even though she was with us a very short time, she has touched us all and brought us together in a huge circle of love and prayer.”
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