On Friday October 27th, Blake and I were anxiously awaiting the arrival of Eleanor and Jane. Labor had started and was progressing very quickly. The girls were being monitored, and it looked like everything was going smoothly. Jane arrived beautifully into this world at 12:44am, and moments later, it was discovered that Eleanor's heartbeat had disappeared.
After an ultrasound, it was confirmed that Eleanor was no longer with us. Our medical team proceeded to make arrangements to help me birth Eleanor safely. We met our sweet Eleanor at 4:01am. We held her closely, talked to her, let her know how much we longed to have raised her, and how much she will be missed. Our medical team let us know that Eleanor had actually passed before labor began. They speculate she passed sometime on Thursday due to an issue with the chord, and that the heart tones that we thought we had heard on Friday were echoes of Jane's or of mine.
There are many things in life that are unexplainable, and this is one. This is where our faith carries us. We take heart in the belief that Our Lord delights in Eleanor even now, beautiful and blameless before Him. We are humbled by the reality that our little girl is among the great Saints praying for us to achieve what she already has. Being open to life also means being open to death. It reminds us of the quote by Alfred Tennyson, "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." We were created by Love, for love, and we can be comforted in the knowledge that our Lord sees our little girl who has won the race, having in her brief life brought more love into the hearts of men, and who now rests in the Father's loving embrace.
A wake service will be held at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, November 5, 2023 at Matthews Funeral Home. A mass of Christian burial will be held at 11:00 a.m., Monday, November 6, 2023 at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, 900 S Littler Ave, Edmond, OK 73034, with interment to follow at St. Patrick's Cemetery, 8455 NW 234th St, Edmond, OK 73025.