REMEMBERING LILY IN IMAGE AND SONG (A multimedia slide show):
Photos by Amy McMullen
Music & Lyrics - Lily's Song (The Afterwards Part) by Lily's brother, Daniel Campbell
FOREVER IN OUR HEARTS...
Lily was born on Monday, November 28 and died on Friday, December 2. These photos were taken on both of those days. During her short life, she endured major surgery, a C-PAP, a chest tube, intubation, IVs, light therapy, and more testing, poking, prodding and monitoring than most adults would handle with even half the grace that Lily exhibited. She was bruised from delivery, developed jaundice and received morphine regularly. She had chapped lips and tape residue on her face from the ventilator which she relied on from day two. She never even had a proper bath until after she died, though we brushed her hair and the nurses did their best to clean her up. Didn’t seem to matter though, she still had an incredibly wonderful baby smell.
Lily was most at peace in our arms on her last day. I think that was all she ever wanted. She fought to stay alive until she got to feel her mommy and daddy’s love envelop her. And then she came back for more! We wish we could hold her in our arms forever, but we will hold her in our hearts instead.
These photos are the work of Amy McMullen, whom we met by chance (or divine guidance) soon after we’d received Lily’s diagnosis of Trisomy 18. Amy is an incredibly gifted photographer, and a wonderful person. She didn’t flinch for one moment when I explained that we were looking for a photographer in the coming months, even though our baby may be stillborn. Amy recently had a niece who had been stillborn, and wanted to do this work for us out of love for the niece she lost. Many people wouldn’t have accepted such a project with so much courage, given that kind of loss. We are forever grateful to Amy for these beautiful images of our Lily.
Click here to visit Amy McMullen's web site
Lily's brother Daniel wrote and recorded this song for her in the first few days of July, long before we had an inkling that anything was wrong. The first time he played it for us was the day we went to his apartment to tell him of Lily's Trisomy 18 diagnosis. We were blown away with emotion, and still are every time we hear it. He played it live at her funeral, along with the slides seen here. The lyrics to the song can be found on the Poems and Letters page.
Lily’s Home Page |
Lily's Life Story |
Poems and Letters for Lily |
Birth and Care Plan |
Trisomy 18 Links and Info
VIEWING TIPS:
- The slide show is best viewed in Internet Explorer with Windows Media Player,
Others may require a plug-in program...
If you are currently in a different browser you can copy and paste this url into IE browser.
- By right mouse clicking in the screen area you have options; including zoom to full screen, save as, etc.
- You may need to turn volume up to hear the audio track (it's a bit low.)
- You may notice the player pauses depending on your connect speed.
Once the video has buffered the video stream it should play smoothly.
You can also save the large file and play from your hard drive.