A Thousand Miles From The Place I Was Born

If you’ve ever scoured my Blogroll, you would have seen the link that directs you to a little blog called “Matt, Liz and Madeline”. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you absolutely must. But hey, word to the wise: make sure you’re alone and bring a box of Kleenex. You will need it.

The blog is maintained by an awesome guy named Matt Logelin, and it is his story of the devastating loss of his beautiful wife, Liz just one day after their precious daughter, Madeline was born. I have been reading Matt’s blog since Maddy was just a couple of months old, and I have experienced every possible emotion while reading it — sadness, despair, grief, joy, laughter, anger, frustration, gratitude. Matt lays bare his soul and lets all of us share in his journey, which has touched me and blessed my life in ways I cannot begin to explain.

As the blog grew steadily in popularity, it became apparent that there were thousands (hundreds of thousands) of people who were also touched by his story and they wanted to offer more help than just kind words of encouragement. Matt believed that he could turn his experience into a force for good, and so the Liz Logelin Foundation was born. The foundation explains their intent far better than I could, so I will just post their words as they have written them:

On March 24, 2008, little Madeline Elizabeth Logelin came into this world.

The next day, her mother left it.

From this impossibly tragic event, a community was born. A community of individuals, united in their desire to help and support Madeline and her father, Matt. This community formed the basis for what would become a worldwide charitable foundation: The Liz Logelin Foundation – For the Love of Liz.

After the catastrophic loss of his wife, Matt Logelin coped by turning not only to his wonderfully supportive family and friends, but to the internet. He had already begun a casual blog to keep friends and family abreast of Liz’s pregnancy; within 2 weeks of her passing, that blog became what it is today: a place where Matt can share his joys and frustrations, challenges and heartbreaks; where concerned friends, new and old, can meet, talk, laugh, and cry with Matt; and most importantly, where other widows and widowers can offer – and be offered – support and friendship.

So strong and large was the community that spontaneously formed around Matt and Madeline, it seemed not only natural, but necessary to harness the strength of that network and turn it into something – something that could help ease the pain and lighten the load felt by widows and widowers everywhere.

And it all sprang from the Love of Liz.

The Liz Logelin Foundation was established to assist families who find themselves in the heartbreaking, catastrophic situation of having lost a spouse, life-partner, and parent. The Foundation’s goal is to financially assist these families as they deal with the loss of their loved ones, and struggle to move forward.

To kick off the foundation, they are creating a promotion called $7 on the 7th. The idea of this is that if people donate just $7 a month on the 7th day of every month, what a blessing this could be for families who are struggling. It’s such a small amount, and it could make all the difference to someone who is in need.