WHERE IT HURTS THE MOST - REMEMBERING LOGAN // SMA AWARENESS

When you lose a loved one, it often takes many years to grieve over their death, or at least that’s what I’m learning. I’m also learning that you never quite forget.

I lost my nephew a little over a year ago on February 8^th, 2012. I can still remember that day frozen in my mind like a photograph. There's not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him, his baby blue eyes, blond baby hair, and sweet little smile. I think of him the way he should be thought of and not laying frozen in that coffin. That is no bed for a baby. (Sorry for the morbidity. It’s just truth.)

In case you haven’t been reading since then my nephew passed away from a genetic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. He was almost 11 months old. He had two little baby teeth breaking through the skin in his lower jaw. He has a sister that smothered him with kisses and called him Loge (pronounced like Logan without the an).  He couldn’t move his arms, legs, neck, back or any voluntary muscle for that matter, but he could smile, big, beautiful and bright. Read about SMA here, here, here or here.

These days I have been thinking about him a lot, not only because it’s been a year since his death and on March 21, 2013 he would have been two years old and because my sister is having another baby at the end of March, and because my co-worker just had a baby and named him Logan, but also because each year we raise money in his honor in a one-mile community walk. Each year we remind the community about SMA and that it’s real. That SMA is the number 1 genetic killer of children under 2 years of age. That medical centers are very unaware of this disease and that there is no cure, but that you can help.

If you’d like to find out more about how you can help and what I do to raise awareness click here or like Loving Logan for SMA on facebook and help us spread the word about SMA. The worst thing is not knowing that it could happen to you.