The immense grief parents experience following a stillbirth, or the passing of a young child, can be devastating. To help mourning families find closure, a grandmother in Colorado creates beautiful angel gowns that fit babies who had lost their lives too soon.
Sandi Fasano, of Evergreen, Colorado, knows very well the profound pain a family has to endure with the death of an infant after losing two grandchildren to stillbirth.
“I’m a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother,” Fasano told TODAY. “I struggled to help ease my children’s pain, but it did inspire me to turn it into something that would be able to help the next family.”
Determined to help families pull through the tragedies, she realized she could put her dressmaking skills to good use. She decided to volunteer her time to make infant burial gowns using the laces, ribbons, and fabrics from recycled wedding dresses.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Fasano said: “There’s such a demand for infant burial clothing and nobody talks about it. I shudder thinking that some parents have to go to toy stores to get gowns for their babies.”
“The last thing a family needs to do is go to a toy store and find doll clothes,” she told WXYZ. “There really isn’t any other option but to provide these free of charge.”
Fasano took to Facebook to post her idea, and in just days, donors all across the United States, and even the United Kingdom, began sending over their recycled wedding gowns, out of kindness, or in memory of a lost child.
One woman, who had lost identical twin boys, donated the gown she wore on her big day with a special request. “She said the only request she had was if I could possibly save two pieces,” said Fasano.
“Once I saw all the beautiful threads and fabrics that were coming in, I had to keep going,” Fasano said.
The response was so overwhelming that it “has now become way bigger than I expected.”
Other than delivering these white lacy bodice burial dresses, white suits with pants, and bonnets to hospitals and mortuaries in Colorado—free of charge—Fasano also donates the beautiful gowns to families, who call Fasano directly to request for one for their baby who died terribly young.
“I recently met a grandmother whose daughter just lost a baby, and after I handed her the gown, we just hugged for a long time,” Fasano said. “There are no words to use.”
Besides angelic burial ensembles, in a few cases, Fasano also crafted two little hats with a note that read, “One for your baby to wear and one for you to hold near.”
Fasano was glad she could help mourning families dress their babies “for the first and last time.”
“If you can ease the pain of a family that has just experienced deep loss, it’s all worth it,” said Fasano. “A little piece of clothing can give so much closure.”
“You can honor that child. Because everything—your hopes and your dreams were in that child.”
It warmed our hearts seeing how Fasano and brides across America banded together to offer grieving families comfort by giving them a tiny angel gown. Their kind initiative has definitely made the situation less difficult for the families.
