Nanaimo mom commits to helping grieving parents after suffering her own loss

NANAIMO, B.C. -

When Erin Sowerby Greene told her husband Cameron that she was pregnant, she sent him a photo of the positive pregnancy test laid across a pair of sneakers.

“I told him I bought him a new pair of shoes. And he’s like, ‘I don’t wear shoes like that.’” Erin laughs. “It took him a second and then he realized about the test!”

Cameron couldn’t have been more pleased. And after the first trimester, Erin was feeling so energized, she and Cameron went on long hikes.

“It was the best I’d ever felt,” Erin says. “We were undefeatable. Nothing could stop us.”

But then, just a couple weeks before the baby was due, Erin’s hands and feet started itching — which led to a previously undiagnosed medical condition.

“Then the (doctor) came in with the ultrasound,” Erin says, fighting back tears. “And said, ‘I’m sorry. There’s no heartbeat.’”

The next day their baby was born still, a little girl named Briar.

“She was so beautiful,” Erin says.

But after spending nine months expecting to spend the rest of their lives together, Erin and Cameron only had an hour with Briar to say goodbye.

“It is really difficult,” Erin says, before wiping away her tears.

It was so traumatic, Erin felt compelled to do something so others wouldn’t have to experience the same thing.

So when Cameron later learned about a cooling bassinet that allowed parents to spend more than a day with their baby following a stillbirth, they started a fundraiser, and bought one of the $7,000 devices for their hospital.

“I don’t know where we found the energy or the drive to do that,” Erin says. “I attribute that to Briar herself.”

And they kept going, raising more than $35,000 to buy cuddle cots for five regional hospitals, all featuring a plaque with Briar’s name.

“This is our way of parenting her,” Erin says. “And making sure that her life is remembered.”

Erin and Cameron also set up a bursary in Briar’s name for underprivileged children to attend a summer camp featuring rescued ponies.

And they’ve done all this while expecting their second child, and being diagnosed with the same condition as before. But because they were expecting it this time, Erin and Cameron planned for the possibility of a premature birth. Just days before Briar’s first birthday, they welcomed Aura in the way they’d always hoped.

“It was beautiful,” Erin smiles. “Skin to skin. Soaking it in with our second daughter.”

Aura is thriving in the NICU, before growing up to be inspired by the way her parents and big sister turned tragic loss into priceless moments for countless others.