Holidays 2024

I am the mother of six and the grandmother of seven with another granddaughter on the way.

My entire world shattered back in May of this year when I got a call from my daughter Florencia, screaming into the phone, Rosie, her 18-month-old daughter, was dead.

The next week is a blur, though the autopsy and tests revealed no determinate cause of death.  Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) entered our world, and we have learned so much over the last 7 months.

We discovered the SUDC Foundation within a month of our journey and immediately felt supported and loved with access to a community network we never knew existed and yet has been transformative during our intense grief.

Grieving the death of my young granddaughter and watching her mom and dad experience the most devasting loss (that of a child) has been extremely painful and yet I have five other children, three of whom are married with their own young children. How do you navigate such a tremendous loss as well as the feelings of anxiety now being experienced by my other children with their children. The answers are not known, however my deep faith in God has shown me the way.  On a dark, dark path of uncertainty, the Lord has guided me with a light that I have always followed and now have leaned into even more for guidance.

The SUDC Foundation hosts a retreat for families every two years and we were pleased to learn that the retreat would take place in September 2024, just 4 months after the passing of our beloved Rosalie.

We couldn’t have known ahead of time how much this retreat would impact our grief journey and connect us with families who have lost a loved one from SUDC. We brought so much to the retreat and yet received so much more in return.  Our exhausted bodies, our tired minds, our empty cups were filled with an outpouring of love, hope, memories and even brightness for the future.  Our bodies were fed and our minds were engaged.  We left with a sense of overflowing support that we could lift our heads and continue walking on the path of this “new normal”.

This past summer, we worked with a lovely husband and wife team who designed a beautiful and very informative website in memory of Rosie and to bring awareness to SUDC.  Check out:  lovelikerosie.org

Last month, in honor of Rosie’s 2^nd birthday (November 8), Rosie’s parents introduced an annual tradition to celebrate her memory and raise awareness and funds to support the SUDC Foundation. We are calling this annual effort “Rosie’s Birthday Gift”. This year, an artisan friend Laura Hooper created a limited number of hand-painted ornaments in loving memory of Rosalie. Anyone who donated to the SUDC Foundation in the amount of $200 or more was presented with an ornament until we exhausted our limited supply.

As we celebrate the season of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are reminded….”To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.”  (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

My wish for each and every one of you and your families is that you lean on your friends and the SUDC Foundation for support and love.  Look for the dim light on the dark path that you are traveling and look up so you can see our departed loved ones looking down on us from above. There will be times (days, hours, minutes) when it will be difficult to see the light they are shining to illuminate our way.  I encourage you to squint and look deeper and harder for the light on those dark days. You may not see it at first, but it is there.  The light will always be there. 

I pray for you. 

God bless,

Alejandra/Gigi

Rosie’s Grandmother