Maylee Wendy Mack

 Sunday morning, May 1st.  David was on the phone and I was talking to him and very upset when Sayer came upstairs.  I could see in her sweet face the concern and the questioning.  I told Cy, Sayer and Ava that Aunt Wendy had passed away last night.  Each responded how I had anticipated, Cy just got real quiet, Sayer had tears in her eyes and Ava just accepted it.  I called Wendy Melville, one of Wendy's best friends.  It was 9:02 and she didn't answer so I left her a message.  Bonnie, Gina, Mindi and Laura came, I can't remember in what order and Lindsey called, she had seen the picture I posted of Wendy on Facebook.  There were lots of hugs and tears.  Even as I am writing this on June 1st, a month later, I still can't believe it, it STILL doesn't seem real.  The kids were divvied up and Sean and I went up to IMC to be with Denny and the family and see baby Maylee.  There were so many there and I can't remember when everybody came but it was just so good to see everyone.  Uncle Larry, Erin, Aunt Sandy, Steph, Brian and Molly Vranes, Dave and Mare, Nate and Brooke, Scott and Laura, Denny's friend Aaron Call and some of Denny and Wendy's neighbors.  I got a return call from a sobbing, heartbroken Wendy Melville, I told her what had happened and she came up as well.  Brian flew in that morning and I couldn't stop myself from running to him when I saw him down the hall. I couldn't believe that this was something we were dealing with.  It just didn't seem right.  We got to go see baby Maylee again and she just looked so good.  Even though she was so small, 5 lbs., I think, she still had little bits of chunkiness on her shoulders and legs.  Her legs were the cutest baby legs!  They looked like little doll legs.  At times they were busy running a pic line and doing tests on her and we weren't able to see her.  The test results weren't looking good.  Cute Brooke brought in some huge pizzas from Costco and some diet cokes.  Laura called and said that the Zabriskies were at her house and wanted to see us.  Sean went home to be with the kids and we went to Laura's.  Ruby and about 5 of her kids were there and then Stan and Lucille and Randy and Carol came a little later.  Everyone was so kind.  Stan and Lucille took David and I to our houses.  It was so late and I had been home for about 15 minutes when David called and told me that Maylee probably wouldn't make it through the night.  They were going to give her a name and blessing and then take her off the machines.  Dave picked me up and we went back up to the hospital.  When we got there the nurses were helping Denny get her dressed in a beautiful, tiny white crocheted blessing dress with little pink flowers.  There were also booties, a bow, a bracelet and a blanket.  Denny kept saying, "Wendy would love this blanket" or "Wendy would love this dress." and I have to agree, she would.  She looked absolutely beautiful in her dress, such a little doll.  Denny gave her the most beautiful blessing and surprised everyone in the circle when he named her "Maylee Wendy Mack".  He had told me he was going to do that and said he didn't think Wendy would agree, but this was one time he would have the final say.  The brothers didn't know that he was going to give her the middle name Wendy and later they told me that the tears just ran.  Denny did such a great job and his strength was so incredible to me.  After the blessing, we all got to hold her.  That's an experience I'll never forget.  For such a small little package, her spirit was enormous.  It really was just like holding pure goodness, truly a little piece of heaven.  The love in that room and also knowing Wendy was so close was such a sweet experience.  I was able to hold her and kiss her and tell her I love her.  Truly angelic, there's no other word.  After everyone who wanted to got to hold her, it was time to take the tubes out.  I was sitting right up by Denny and everything was done very quietly and peacefully.  The nurses were so quiet, soft and gentle.  Little Maylee went very peacefully, being passed from her dad's arms right into her mom's.  What a lucky little girl.  I'm so glad Wendy has her.  There was nothing in this life that brought Wendy more joy that being a mom and I'm so glad that that doesn't have to stop.  When Maylee was intubated, we had to be really careful with her and hold her on a pillow and be really careful that the breathing tube didn't come out.  You couldn't get too snugly with the tubes and pillow in the way.  But now that she was tubeless, I knew she could be snuggled.  I asked Denny if I could hold her one more time and he said yes.  I got to snuggle her and take in her pure goodness.  Man, she felt so good.  I wish I could bottle that feeling and feel it every day of my life.  At one point Denny was holding her while he was standing up and he got in that stance I'd seen so many times over the past 6 years when he was holding his new babies, he gets in a wide stance and kind of sways back and forth and pats their bums.  If you didn't know the circumstances and that's all you saw, you would just think it was a typical scene of a dad holding his newborn in the hospital, but, oh, the situation was anything but typical and the heartache behind it was almost unimaginable.  Maylee was gone now too, and although it makes me so sad that I won't be able to get to know her for a while, I am so happy she is in the arms of her beautiful, loving mother. 

Sweet Dallin

Everyone in the circle

My sweet, tiny niece.

David

Brian

Nate

No more tubes, cute little chubby cheeks and the tongue just like Wendy's.

Such a sweet, heartbreaking picture.

 

One last note:  When we were at Laura's earlier in the evening, Mare called and her voice was dancing as she told us all (I put her on speaker phone) about what was going on at my parent's house.  She said that the whole day long, a Sunday, people were coming in waves to clean my parent's home.  No stone was left unturned in the house and the yard.  Dave and Mare couldn't sleep there that night because the carpets were all wet because they had been cleaned and all the sheets were being washed.  Mare said she has to hit her dryer to make it work and as she was coming home, she saw her dryer being hauled away in the back of a truck to be fixed.  I'm completely blown away with the kindness of others, it is truly so inspiring to see!