Jadyn’s Legacy: 11 Years Later
Fifteen Days...
Fifteen days were all the Griffin family had with their youngest daughter Jadyn.
Jadyn’s Legacy: 11 Years Later
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Born at only 25 weeks, Jadyn weighed just over one pound and fit into the palms of her parents’ hands.
Although she lived only two weeks, her short life inspired the grieving family to create a legacy of healing and hope to support the families of other babies in the NICU. Since Jadyn’s three older sisters had been born prematurely, Maria and Clay Griffin felt like experts in a subject no parent wants to understand personally. They knew to anticipate a tangle of wires, PICU lines and IVs as well as sleepless nights waiting for their daughter to come home.
Despite this, they remained hopeful, reassuring each other, “We got this. We’ve been through this in the NICU.”
Sculpture titled Heartbroken, created by artist Bob Willis.
For 15 days, the fourth-floor waiting room became a second home to the Griffin family. Each evening after dinner, the entire family made the trip to the hospital, working on homework assignments in the waiting room and trading visits with Jadyn.
Jadyn achieved a few treatment milestones in the NICU, but her breathing began to deteriorate. Early one morning, Maria and Clay received a phone call from the NICU.
“You need to come to the hospital right now,” the nurses said.
Maria and Clay rushed to the NICU, fearing that their worst nightmare was coming true.
“How much time does she have?” Clay asked the nurse, dreading the answer. Jadyn’s caregivers couldn’t be sure.
Too delicate to be outside of the equipment keeping her alive, Jadyn had lived for 15 days without being held by her parents.
“I knew Maria needed to hold her then,” Clay shared.
After Jadyn’s nurse carefully removed her from the two ventilators allowing her to breathe, she gently passed Jadyn’s tiny body to Maria.
Jadyn took her last breath in her mother's arms for the first time. “It was hard. It was really hard,” Maria shared. “Afterwards, you have this … I’m not even sure how to describe it – but this heaviness. You can’t breathe.”
A Journey Towards Hope
“That’s kind of where we started to get involved with the Foundation and our support for the NICU,” Clay noted. “We found out that the memorial service and memorial bricks were being paid for by NICU nurses, and we wanted to support them and give back.”
In the months following their loss, the Griffins took comfort in the PRIDE Program (Parents Responding to Infant Death Experience) at INTEGRIS Health, a support group dedicated to families grieving the loss of an infant. Today, the PRIDE Program hosts a memorial service every October. With a brick dedicated in their memory, families come together to honor infants who were recently lost. These families find solace and hope in their shared experience, some attending this memorial service for over 20 years.
While attending the first memorial service after Jadyn’s passing, the Griffins learned about upcoming renovations to the Temple Baby Memorial Garden, including the idea of adding a sculpture. Feeling a connection to the other families in the garden experiencing the loss of an infant, they contributed to a commissioned sculpture titled Heartbroken. '
The Temple Baby Memorial Garden is a dedicated space families can visit to honor the memory of their child.
From the front, the sculpture features a hole in the shape of a heart, the edges jagged and ripped. The hole extends all the way through the sculpture, the edges gradually becoming less and less tattered until they are nearly smooth on the back. The sculpture represents the pain families feel after the loss of their child. “It’s not that it goes away,” Clay says. “But over time, we begin to heal.”
Beads of Courage
Since 2017, more than 31,390 beads have been purchased for NICU babies alone. 23,795 beads have been given to pediatric patients in the chronic illness and burn units.
Beads of Courage was established at INTEGRIS Health in 2017 by the Griffin family. Every time a baby reaches an important medical milestone, they receive a bead. With 30 different beads, including a special bead in honor of Jadyn, Beads of Courage provides hope to families as they see just how far their baby has come.
While her life was short, Jadyn’s legacy has inspired multiple projects the Griffins continue to support. They hope to encourage other families who find themselves in that same fourth-floor waiting room, holding their breath as they wait for good news.