Valarie Watts was devastated when she gave birth to her stillborn son, Noah, in July. As she grieved, she decided to sell most of the baby items she had lovingly prepared for his arrival. But there was one thing she just couldn’t let go of—a white crib that held all her hopes and dreams for her baby boy.
One day, Valarie held a yard sale, and an elderly man named Gerald Kumpula happened to stop by. Gerald, 75, was a retired craftsman who loved turning old furniture into beautiful benches. He noticed the crib, and though Valarie, 28, was reluctant to sell it, Gerald gently asked if he could buy it.
At first, Valarie wasn’t sure about parting with the crib. But eventually, she agreed to sell it to Gerald for just two dollars. It comforted her to think that he would create something beautiful from the crib. “I was kind of at peace with it,” Valarie said. “He’d be making something nice.”
While they were talking, Gerald’s wife, Lorene, struck up a conversation with Valarie. When Lorene asked about her baby, Valarie opened up about her heartbreaking loss. Deeply moved, Lorene shared Valarie’s story with Gerald on their way home.
Gerald and Lorene had raised fifteen children and had many grandchildren. They understood the depth of Valarie’s pain and realized that the crib truly belonged with her. A week later, Gerald and Lorene returned to Valarie’s house with a very special gift. Gerald had crafted a beautiful bench from the crib that once symbolized Valarie’s dreams for Noah.
When Valarie saw the bench, she was overwhelmed with emotion. “It’s beautiful,” she told TODAY.com. “There are still good people out there.” The bench now sits in her living room, a place where she can remember Noah.
“I’m so happy that it’s not just sitting around doing nothing,” Valarie said. “Now I can sit in it, hold his bear, and think about him if I need to.” In the final days of her pregnancy, Valarie had noticed that Noah wasn’t moving as much. On July 22, during a cesarean section, she and her fiancé, Jimi Hamblin, received the heartbreaking news that Noah wasn’t breathing. The doctors later explained that his umbilical cord had tightened, cutting off his oxygen.
The Kumpulas understood Valarie’s sorrow all too well, as they had also lost their first grandchild to stillbirth. Gerald knew how painful it could be to see an empty crib. “An abandoned crib is a somber reminder,” he said. “A bench functions more as a monument. It’s a part of that awful event, but it’s not a crib—an empty crib—like it would be.”
Gerald refused any payment for the bench. “It’s just nice to be able to help someone. Helping others is good,” he said.
Valarie, who is planning to marry Jimi this autumn, finds comfort in the bench, which now sits next to a bookcase holding pictures, footprints, handprints, and ashes of Noah. The couple also has a 7-year-old daughter named Nevaeh. For Valarie, the bench has become a place of solace.
“Even though he’s not here, I feel comforted by his presence when I’m sitting in it,” Valarie said. “Everything has a calm, ‘it’s okay’ vibe to it. I can sit on the bench and feel better when I’m depressed; everything will work out in the end.”
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