Remembering Maddie

People often ask me why I blog. [Right after they ask me "What's a blog?"] I never really know what to say. I want to chronicle our live because as I get older my brain can’t even remember what happened last week let alone three years ago. I love to write. I love meeting new people. I love learning new things. I love hearing other opinions. The list goes on and on.

But yesterday I was reminded of another reason I LOVE blogging. Community. Bloggers band together to fight corporations (I’m looking at you Motrin). Bloggers are always willing to give advice. And bloggers come together to comfort you when you’re down.

On Tuesday Heather Spohr from The Spohrs are Multiplying lost her precious daughter Madeline. Maddie was born premature and struggled with lung issues throughout her 17 months of life. Over the weekend Maddie was having some breathing issues. Heather thought it might be RSV or pneumonia and took her to the doctor. She was then rushed to the hospital via ambulance. And just a few hours later she passed away.

As mother’s we’ve all dealt with these diseases. I think all of my kids had RSV at least once in their life. I can remember sitting in the hospital with Spencer when he was a baby, giving him oxygen and breathing treatments until he got over his RSV. Just last month Caleb had pneumonia. While I joked about the severity of it, I never really thought of death as a possibility. But it happens. And it’s just heart breaking.

As the news of Maddie’s death hit the internet via Heather’s blog, Twitter and Facebook, this community of bloggers took action. Posts were published in Maddie’s memory. A YouTube video was created to remember her life. Heather and Mike’s Facebook pages were flooded with sympathetic messages, Twitter was a flutter with support, a Paypal account was set up so people could contribute, and their websites were overloaded with traffic and comments. With so much traffic the website went down and bloggers worked to get the site back up. Contributions to the Spohr’s March of Dimes Walk page went from a couple thousand to almost $20,000 in one day. Bloggers across the country have started their own March of Dimes walking teams in support of Maddie. Purple shirts were created for everybody to purchase an wear in Maddie’s memory.

This is why I blog. This community of people who are there whenever one of us needs them. These wonderful people who drop everything to help somebody in need. I’m proud to be part of this group; the not-so-secret society of bloggers.

We will miss you Maddie!

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