We are friends of the wonderful duo Harry and Kate, and are starting a gofundme to help them with expenses through this journey.

The hospital stay for Kate, before and after baby, has been longer and harder than anyone could have predicted. Because of this, Harry has had to take more time off and away from the business. Any help we can provide them would just take some ease off of their shoulders.

Here is a little update from Harry and Kate:

Hello friends, an update from us now that baby Elphinstone Fae Anne Aldous has entered the world – we invite you to join us in welcoming her after the long journey it has taken to get here!

Born at 34 weeks via emergency c-section on Sunday, October 1st at around 8:56pm, Elphi weighed in at 3 lbs 11 oz and she has been breathing, eating, and pooping well.

Kate, as many of you know, is a high-risk patient with a chronic condition called Hollow Viscous Myopathy which we understand is basically a kind of muscular dystrophy specific to the digestive tract. What this means is that she does not have the healthy privilege of uncomplicated bowel movements and she takes intravenous nutrition on a daily basis.

Because of this degenerative disease she lives a life in constant negotiation with her uncooperative internal organs. Us choosing to conceive was always a calculated risk and we have experienced health challenges at every stage in the pregnancy.

Since the birth Kate has been in critical condition due to excess swelling in her abdomen and extremities, with her body struggling to recover post-surgery and her mental health negatively affected by the same hospital conditions she grew up in as a child at McMaster after being born here herself.

I myself am at her bedside for much of the day every day as we grapple with the recurrences of medical trauma that were inevitable while our healthy little girl grows steadily in another ward down the hall.

Historically, us sharing details of Kate’s bodily functions have lost us handfuls of followers as this is all understandably much too real for folks who find our page and want just the pretty flowers.

As our name should suggest, we are not those kind of floral designers.

This is a post written to say simply that Kate’s recovery is a long way off. Although both of us are neurotically shit at asking for help we consider you to be our community and we have indeed relied upon you many times to come through for us in the past. This is us requesting your help in whichever ways you find yourself able.

We live one day at a time, please let us lean on you if you can

Harry & Kate ‍♂️‍♀️