Maggie Correnti's Memorial Fund

On December 8, 2016 our lives were changed forever. My wife Jessica and I lost our little baby girl, Maggie Sophia Correnti, 22 weeks into pregnancy.  Maggie entered the world as a stillborn baby at 3:40am and weighed only 15 oz.  

Little Maggie was so beautiful and so sweet. Though she had very severe issues with her brain and spinal cord, she looked perfect to us. She had ten fingers, ten toes, and long feet and hands.  It seemed as though she would have been tall, just like her big brother Ryan was at birth. Her lips were full like her Daddy’s and her cheeks were already a bit chubby like her Mommy’s.  It was both heartbreaking and amazing at the same time to meet our little girl for the first and last time.  
 
Every single day we think of her and wish that she were here with us.  It is really hard not to think about all the "what if scenarios" that play out in our minds.  We miss her and love her so deeply. We will forever cherish the 10 hours that we spent holding her, loving her, and creating memories with her that we will remember for the rest of our lives.  Our first-born child, Ryan, came to the hospital to meet his baby sister.  As he grows up, he will always know that he had a baby sister.  For a very short time, we were a family of four.  

My wife and I want to share this very personal and heartbreaking story for a few reasons.  First and foremost, Maggie was and always will be our daughter, and an important member of our family.  We also share this story in hopes that other families going through a similar situation may find some comfort in hearing that they are not alone.  Too often families that experience the loss of a child suffer in silence.  

We want to thank those that reached out to us to send us cards and flowers, those who made phone calls and text messages to check in and show their love and support, those that made us meals for the weeks following our darkest days when making a meal was the last thing we wanted to do, those that sat with us and listened to our story and cried along with us, and for those that offered to help care for Ryan to give us a break to allow us to grieve without having to care for a toddler at the same time.  We especially want to thank the hospital staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital who went way above and beyond to make our time with Maggie as special, healing, and memorable as it could have been.  We could not have done it without any of you.

None of this makes any sense; no parent should ever have to bury their child.  You never think it will be you, until it is.  It is quite literally a parent’s worst nightmare, but we are trying to create something positive out of this heartbreaking experience.  We would like to raise money to honor Maggie, and let her help the world that she left way too soon.  100% of the money that we are raising through this page will go to two specific places near and dear to our hearts. 

Part of the money raised will be donated to the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Pediatric Palliative Care Department.  This team of people helped turn the worst day of our lives into a very therapeutic, healing, and memorable experience.  We were able to make 3D molds of Maggie’s hands and feet and we had a non-profit group called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep edit the photos that were taken of our family that day to capture that special time with Maggie.  The hospital staff provided us with scrapbooking material, paints, and other craft supplies to create meaningful keepsakes.  Above all, this team was able to help us voice everything we wanted in the short time that we had with Maggie.  Because of that, we never felt rushed, and we were able to do everything we had hoped to do during our time at the hospital with our daughter.  That type of experience is absolutely invaluable to grieving parents who need something tangible to hold onto after leaving the hospital with empty arms. 

A lot of families are completely unaware that these types of resources are available to them when faced with the loss of a baby.  Questions like can we hold our child, how long do we have with them, how can we make lasting memories, and how can we have professional photos taken?  The list goes on and on.  Having people who can advocate for your wishes as a family, and help you be intentional with the brief time you have with your little one is so incredibly important.  We want to make sure that other families have the same resources available to them, if not more.  We want other families to have dedicated hospital staff that supports them on the worst day of their lives, just like we did.  Having resources like this available to families is not cheap.  We want to ensure that the cost of these resources does not inhibit the hospital’s ability to go above and beyond for grieving families. 

The other portion of the money will be used to create a new disc golf course in Maggie’s name as a permanent memorial. We are exploring options at Druid Hill Park in Baltimore City as well as in Baltimore County.  The courses at Druid Hill have been around for 30 years.  The park also caters to hiking, biking, and walking through the many various paths and trails that are scattered throughout.  It is a beautiful resource, connected to the Baltimore Zoo, and allows for a lot of people to get out of the house and get moving. Druid Hill Park is the home course for most of the Baltimore City/County disc golf community members. There are not any 18 hole courses in Northern Baltimore County, so we are exploring options to create one there. We are planning on designing a fun and challenging course that will appeal to a wide variety of players. 

The money that we raise will be used to purchase 19 brand new baskets (18 for the new course and a practice basket), tee pad construction, and signage for the course. We will have signage at the entrance of the course with a course map, a list of donors who wish to be named, and a message honoring our sweet Maggie. Also, assuming we get permission, we would like to raise awareness for the Pediatric Palliative Care Department at Johns Hopkins by placing the hospital’s logo and the department’s name on this sign.

The disc golf course is the place that I come to clear my head, to connect with nature, and to play a game that I love. It is so comforting to think that every time I go out to play at this course, Maggie will be there with me. 

Thank you for your generosity in helping us honor Maggie, it means the world to us.  If somehow we surpass our goal of raising $20,000 we will donate every penny above the goal to John’s Hopkins Pediatric Palliative Care.