Mom mourning stillborn son sold his crib for $2 at garage sale — when buyer learned of her loss, he returned with a gift
The grief of having a stillborn is unfathomable. It takes a special strength for parents to come to terms with the fact that the baby they’d been waiting for so earnestly is no longer going to be a part of their lives. Valerie Watts and Jimi Hamblin were shattered after they bid goodbye to their stillborn, Noah, per TODAY. Trying to recover from their loss, the parents set up a garage sale to sell all the items they had purchased for their newborn. The mom, however, didn’t want to part with the crib where she hoped with all her heart to lay her boy. When the buyer and his wife, Gerald and Lorene Kumpula, learned of the backstory behind the crib, they returned with a life-altering gift.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, around 21,000 babies are stillborn in the country. One cannot imagine the grief and devastation it brings upon a family, especially a mother, who carried the baby in her womb with love, hopes and so many feelings revolving around it. Stillbirth is one of the hardest challenges, according to the American Pregnancy Association. There is much to deal with, right from informing loved ones, figuring out how the procedure follows and much more. But most importantly, the hardest part for parents is to accept that they won’t be taking home a new life and they won’t be having that new beginning they had been dreaming of and preparing for.
Doing away with the baby furniture, clothing and so many other things is a stab in the heart for mothers who had dear plans. Letting go of each item means letting go of the dream and accepting the truth. As Watts tried to navigate her way through the loss, she decided to accept her fate by selling Noah’s items in a garage sale. One of the most crucial ones was a white crib, the piece of furniture that would have held her baby for a long time. While she initially didn’t want to part with it, when Kumpula asked to purchase it, she agreed to sell it for $2 to mark another depth of acceptance.
The buyer was a craftsman who was skilled in making chairs and things of the sort. “I was a little bit at peace with it because he’d be making something nice,” Watts remarked. Kumupla’s wife, Lorene, noticed the baby clothes and asked the grieving woman about her son. When she learned that Noah was stillborn, her heart went out to her. Having had kids and grandkids of her own, Lorene knew that they had to do better than just take the crib from Watts as a purchase. She spoke to her husband and the duo showed up at the bereaved couple’s home with a gift.
Watts was stunned to see that Kumpula used his skill to turn Noah’s crib into a bench for Watts. “An unused crib is a sad reminder. A bench is more of a memorial,” the man said. “It’s beautiful," the woman remarked. “I thought, ‘There are still kind people out there,’” she added. For her, the crib was not just wood; it held sentiment and the Kumpulas understood that. “I’m overwhelmed with joy that it’s not just sitting somewhere unused. Now I can sit in it, hold his bear, and think about him if I need to,” Watts said.