A Hospital Tradition Remembers Youngest Patients

Many families described their children in this book as in heaven as angels incorporated into heavenly families closely connected to those on earth. One mother and father wrote, “You are in heaven right now with God.” Another mother called her son “our Gift to God” writing that he “went up to heaven an hour and a half” after his birth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. “You got to go to heaven without ever having to know pain or evil,” this mother continued. “You are nothing but pure and good.” For some, heaven was safe because family members who already died were there, waiting for or already caring for the child. Rather than seeing heaven as a separate set-aside place, many imagined it being much like earth, where relationships and activities continue. In one entry, carefully handwritten by a mother who also drew a heart with her daughter’s initials inside it, were the words, “I am thankful you are in heaven with so many others who will love and take care of you until I arrive hopefully many, many years from now.” And in another entry, “When you reach heaven, your great grandma will be waiting on you.”