WHY?
Why did we pick the St. Louis River Alliance to give our memorial money & all the money from FORIVER sweatshirt purchases?
If you’re reading this, you probably already know that River died during childbirth, at a planned homebirth. If not, please see my presentation that I did for St. Luke’s on River’s story, his little brother’s story, & the importance of safety during labor and birth.
Back to the original question…WHY?
When River died, we received sympathy cards for one month. One month exactly. One month and one day after his death, no more cards arrived. The mailbox was empty.
For one month, every day there was a sympathy card, I sent a birth announcement of River & a thank you note with a promise that we would use any money enclosed on a memorial. We received a total of $640. We decided we would plan something for April, six months after his death. But, covid hit & locked us down. So, we never got to have a memorial service for River. We had his ashes & the $640, but now we were at a standstill.
During the lockdown, we took many drives to get out of our house-the home River died in. We spent a lot of time at the Woodstock Bay landing. We talked about our dreams of living by the River to have a physical reminder of our son. We had picked his name because everything we dreamed for our son was related to what a river is:
Go with the flow
Follow the path of least resistance
Always move forward, don’t look back
You make the world a better place just by being in it
The St. Louis River touches so many people in this community. It was a place of peace for us when our son died. It feeds the big lake-therefore reaching more people and creatures than we can even imagine. That’s why we chose to raise money & donate our memorial money to the St. Louis River Alliance.
Thank you to everyone who sent a sympathy card. If you sent cash or a check, your money was donated.
Thank you for supporting FORIVER and buying a sweatshirt or sticker.
Thank you for showing up on national infant & baby loss awareness day to honor all of our children who have died.
May you think of our son River the next time you see a sparkle on the waters of the St. Louis River. And, to know your monetary donation has helped the river sparkle a bit brighter.
If you’d like to purchase a sweatshirt or sticker, please message me on Instagram. We will continue to donate money in our son’s name to make the world a better place. Because, we know in our hearts that River Meriwether Johnson would have done just that!
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