In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand In Gear - Issue 3 | Page 62

In Adisyn’s name
I
... donations from the heart
n the last edition of In Gear, we
brought you the courageous
story of Dunedin Next Generation
Rotary’s Emmerson Morgan and
her poignant journey to celebrate
and memorialise her ‘angel baby’,
Adisyn-Hope.
With support from her NRG family, Emmerson and
fiancé Ben Davidson have embarked on countless
acts of love, kindness and giving in Adisyn’s name,
including raising $18,000 for three ‘CuddleCots’,
a new innovation that gives bereaved parents
precious extra time with their baby.
When Emmerson
spoke to In Gear
late last year,
she had but
one Christmas
wish: to gift the
CuddleCots to
Dunedin’s Queen
Mary Maternity
Centre by
December 25.
path to realise their dream of giving newly-bereaved
parents more treasured time with their baby.
The flow-on effects for NRG, Emmerson believes,
have gone far further than the deep sense
of purpose members felt contributing to the
CuddleCots project.
“I think, like me, they felt proud to be part of it, but
it’s also inspired them to take on other projects.
“It’s definitely injected more energy and motivation,
because you need to see a project finished and
think: ‘Ah, this is why we do this’.
“It was a
reminder for all
of us why it’s so
important for us
to get out there,
pay it forward,
and get involved
in things that
are bigger than
ourselves.
“It’s a reminder,
too, of what
With 10 days to
we can achieve
spare, her wish
when we come
was granted.
together, and
On December
we support each
14, family,
other. I didn’t do
friends and her
this on my own.
Dunedin NRG’s Emmerson Morgan, with fiancé Ben Davidson, during
fellow Rotarians
It was born from
a heartfelt presentation in honour or their daughter.
joined medical
my experience,
staff at Dunedin Hospital’s maternity wing for an
and I was lucky enough to meet people along the
emotional presentation, the culmination of 18
way who were prepared to join Ben and me and
months’ fundraising and planning.
make this happen.”
“It was huge for me,” Emmerson says. “Actually
doing that, and finishing it. It was quite amazing to
see it all come together.
“And how it was received at the hospital, that was
very humbling. Walking down the corridors, and
having the staff hug me and say: ‘Thank you so
much; you don’t know what this will do for families
and for us’.”
The CuddleCots arrived just in time for families who,
tragically, lost their newborns in the New Year, but
gave the grieving parents the choice to have their
babies with them for longer to say goodbye.
Emmerson believes CuddleCots offer a significant
therapeutic benefit, greater than many might
realise.
“That was really beautiful, just gorgeous.” “To be able to do all those things with your baby
– cuddle them, bath them … I don’t think people
understand how that helps you, helps the grief
process and allows people to move forward
psychologically and emotionally.
At Emmerson and Ben’s side during the ceremony
were Emmerson’s fellow NRG members, Rotarians
who have supported them on their often painful “When your baby dies, it’s like a fork in the road at
that point, and I think parents can go one of two
ways, depending on the experience they have.
The maternity team made a special presentation
of its own, presenting Emmerson a Christmas
decoration of a mother holding a baby.
Page 62 | In Gear - Rotary in southern New Zealand - District 9980 | www.rotarydistrict9980.org