Almost everyone has experienced some sort of tragedy. It’s unfortunate and heartbreaking, but at least there’s small comfort in knowing that the people around you understand your pain. And as people like Matt Logelin have found, there are many different ways to cope.
When he experienced a profound loss, Matt found solace in a rather unexpected place. Though his life would never be the same, his story was a beacon of hope for anyone going through an extremely difficult time…
To say that the romance between Matt Logelin and Liz Goodman was a whirlwind would be an understatement. After a chance meeting at a gas station as seniors in high school, their relationship became a long-distance one once they both attended college in different parts of the country.
In 2005, Matt decided to give it all up and move to Los Angeles to be with the love of his life. That same year, he and Liz exchanged vows in front of their friends and family. Months later, they purchased a home together—and they still weren’t done reaching milestones!
Just two years later, the couple excitedly announced they were expecting their first child! The loving couple even launched a pregnancy blog to keep their friends and family in the loop. At that point, life seemed pretty perfect.
While their lives were seemingly perfect, Liz’s pregnancy was not. In fact, at 33 weeks, she suffered from constant morning sickness, and the typically active woman was placed on several weeks of bed rest. That’s when things took a turn…
Seven weeks before her due date, Liz was rushed to the hospital after going into premature labor. When she was unable to give birth naturally, the doctors performed an emergency C-section. A short while later, Madeline “Maddy” Logelin was born!
Weighing just three pounds and 14 ounces, little Maddy had to be rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit before her parents even had the opportunity to hold her. As the couple waited for updates on their daughter, Matt made the announcement of her arrival.
At that point, Liz was put on 24 hours of bed rest to recover from her surgery. She would have to wait until the following day to hold her baby for the first time. The next day, while they waited for Maddy’s arrival, Matt helped Liz practice walking. And that was when things went horribly wrong…
As Matt helped Liz back into her wheelchair, she uttered the words “I feel lightheaded,” before fainting and collapsing into his arms. Though doctors assured him it was common for new mothers to faint after giving birth, he knew something wasn’t quite right.
Just moments later, Matt’s entire life changed at the drop of a hat. “Suddenly there’s this ‘code blue,’ people rushing past me,” he recalled. “All of a sudden it hit me, she was going to die, today, here in this hospital. And she was never going to hold her baby.”
Barely 24 hours after giving birth, doctors revealed a blood clot had traveled to the new mother’s lungs, causing a fatal pulmonary embolism. Tragically, at just 30, Liz lost her life. Just like that, Matt and Maddy were all alone.
In a haze, Matt was tasked with the heartbreaking job of updating his friends and family of the tragedy that had taken place. He’d barely even had time to process what had happened…
Matt was utterly grief-stricken. Somehow, he’d become both a widower and a new dad all within a day. And the thought of raising their daughter without Liz was an absolutely devastating thought.
A few days later, Matt and his family held Liz’s funeral while Maddy continued to recover in the hospital. Following the service, he paid his newborn daughter a visit, and he was able to hold her and feed her for the first time. It was a mixture of emotions.
Not long after, Matt was able to bring his daughter home; with her arrival, he felt a renewed sense of life within himself. “When I finally got to bring Madeline home for the first time, I felt the house alive again,” he remembered.
In the following weeks, as Matt continued to raise his daughter, he was struck with constant reminders of his late wife. If not his wedding ring, it was seeing the clock strike 3:11 p.m.—the time she’d passed. In those moments, life seemed completely unbearable. Despite his grief, Matt knew he had to focus his attention on raising his daughter.
Amazingly, he began to feel some relief from an unlikely source: the couple’s old pregnancy blog! He decided to change the blog’s name to “Matt, Liz and Madeline: Life and Death, All in a 27-Hour Period.”
Through writing about his experiences as a grief-stricken widower, he was able to feel his first moments of solace. “Some minutes, I am extremely happy and there are other minutes when I am so down I don’t know what to do. That’s what I try to convey through the blog,” he explained.
Matt hoped that, because he had so many memories of Liz to share, he could use the blog as somewhat of a scrapbook. One day, through his writing, he hoped Maddy could learn how great her mother truly was. Soon, millions of readers visited and shared their stories with him each month.
With the help of many of these readers, Matt was able to set up the Liz Logelin Foundation, a charity “dedicated to providing support to grief-stricken young families in their time of deepest need.” Over time, it raised thousands of dollars.
Matt was still devastated by the loss of his loving wife, but through some unexpected sources of relief, he was able to get through the hardest part of his life. Though coping with Liz’s loss was an unimaginable struggle, Matt came to realize that she was with him and Maddy every day in spirit!
It’s heartbreaking to think that Liz never had the opportunity to hold Maddy. But the fact that Matt was able to find solace through the blog they started together is a testament to both her impact on his life and the unusual places we can find sometimes find relief, even in our darkest days.
