The following correspondence show intimately how important our mission is for families; how our values of Validation, Education, and Advocacy are vital to the tens of thousands of families nationwide who are affected each year. Their healing and well-being is very much dependant on all our actions...

I wanted to send you a note thanking you for all the great care and love that you gave me and mostly the great care you gave my little girl. You gave me so many memories. I am so grateful to you all. You really do such a great job. Because of you I have memories of my little girl. It was and is such a hard time but your kindness made it a little easier. I will never forget your kindness. Thank you, M.

Dear Lesley, I just wanted to thank you for the memory box. It was more than I expected! There were a lot of wonderful things in there for us to use to make it work for us. I cried opening it up though, it was the first things I received that were the color pink... ...I'm wearing the bracelet and using the bookmarker. It has all given me great ideas for 'C'. Again I want to thank you for all you have done for us! Sincerely, M.

and from the same family later in September 2005:

Thank you so much for doing this for us. I think the memory box and keepsakes will help me with what I'm doing for 'Baby C' to preserve her memory with us... ...I'm finding that all that I'm doing right now is part of my healing process. I don't have a lot of material items that came from having 'Baby C', so what you have sent has been a blessing. Thanks for helping myself and my husband in doing somehting for our daughter... ...I can only think of the best for her since this is all I have, and I want people to know she was very much a part of our lives for as long as she was with us. M.

*About premature twin daughters--

Dear Jean, ...The bereavement cart was a blessing to my husband and me. The dresses and blankets helped in the grieving process to have something to hold onto after they had to take my children away. It was also proof that my daughters were here. The nurses were also wonderful. They treated our daughters as they would have treated any live birth. It meant a lot to us.

One way I have found to keep 'Baby E' and Baby I's' memory alive is to make blankets to donate to the bereavement cart. If I can help other families in their time of grief then it makes me feel good knowing the pain I have gone through and what I have learned is helping others going through the same pain. Please accept these blankets for the bereavement cart. If there is anything else I can do please email me at...Sincerely, P.

I just want to say thank-you for your support when I was in for a miscarriage in March. Thank you for talking to me about arrangements/cremation for our little one. I feel certain that we would not have made arrangements had it not been for you and your talk with me..We did wind up using the urn you gave to us, and I feel a sense of closure that we followed this through to the end. When I had my first miscarriage... ...we didn't do anything... ...and that still bothers me to this day. At least now, I feel that this time we did right by our baby. I still haven't opened up the memory box - don't know if I ever will; the feelings are still too raw...

...Again, thank-you so much for your help through such a difficult time. -'T'

*I emailed this patient of mine back about pictures I had on CD of her baby asking if it was OK to send them via mail or if we should keep them on file, and she replied:

Yes, I would like you to send them. What a good idea... ...it would be nice to have them available... ...keep me posted on your business(non-profit)... ...Thanks for thinking of us - we do appreciate it. It helps to actually know other people out there who have experienced a similar loss and not just hear that they're out there! -'T'

Dear Ms. Gorny,

The President, Officers, Board of Directors and members of the Capital District Nurses Association would like to express to you our gratitude for your participation in the Memory Box Project at Albany Medical Center.

Your contribution to the community, as a wife, mother and a nurse are to be commended. Thank you for all you do.

Sincerely, The Caring and Sharing Committee

Dear Lesley, Thanks so much for coming the the RTS Conference, I am sure in many ways it had to be difficult. Please be assurred that you have helped many people to understand how to more compassionately and effectively help people with perinatal loss. Yours, 'N' 'MB' 'MB' 'PJ'

I was induced at 21 weeks and staff was wonderful, caring, and attentive. 'S' & 'K' were great. My husband & I really appreciated the memory box, blanket & pictures of our daughter during her brief life.

Our nurses baptized our daughter. 'K' spent a lot of time preparing our memory box & taking pictures. We were overwhelmed that they knew exactly what to do during our difficult time. We were unsure of what we wanted done and the nurses all knew & were so supportive.

...We got the box of bereavement items. There is no way to thank you enough. Finding small outfits for the very small babies is always difficult. -Thank you. The Certificates of Life are enough to bring tears to anyone's eyes, but the comments (by nurses) were almost overwhelmingly that it would be a comfort to the parents.

If there is anything that I can do for you please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you again, 'M'

...I know you must talk with a lot of Moms like me, and you must have a terrible time keeping track of who's who. I wanted to say Thank You, I received your card the other day. And your phone call before I left the hospital helped too.

My name is 'H.L.' and my son, 'N.T.', was born June __, 2005 and died the next day. He had Trisomy 13. We only knew about a heart defect, and we found out after he was born that it was much more serious than we had originally thought.

We had the memorial service June ___. We had N.T. cremated... ...We will always have him home with us now.

I want to tell you that all the Doctors and Nurses were fantastic. The books and pamphlets they gave me have helped. I've read them all and my daughter (who is 7) has read the 'We were gonna have a baby, but we had an angel instead' book over and over again.

I keep hoping this is temporary, and that one morning I'm going to wake up feeling better about N.T. not being here with me, that I'll be able to accept it... ...I realized that day will probably never come and that I am always going to miss him.

It seems that everyone wants me to stop being sad, and just be happy. Like N.T. was never here at all. I can't do that, and even if I could, I won't. He IS my son. Here or not, He is my baby, just like my daughter is, and I will never forget. EVER!! I have his pictures displayed in my house with our other kids pictures, and I will never take them down.

...my daughter is not an only child, even if N.T. is not here with us. She was SO excited about having a baby brother. She couldn't wait to teach him things, and help him at school when he was old enough.

All these dreams we all had...

... 'H'