Our precious daughter was born at 24 weeks and 3 days. She was 14.8oz. They were able to stabilize her and transfer her to the NICU. Our daughter spent the next 5 days fighting for her life. Her strength was something we never knew someone her size could have. RJ, our daughter’s favorite nighttime nurse, was one of the first people in the NICU to make a difference in our lives during this terrible time. We were terrified, scared of what our future looked like, having such a premature baby. The way RJ took care of our daughter despite her size and her having the odds stacked against her was truly remarkable. You could feel the love he had to share with her in the way he handled her care. He was there for us, answered any questions we had, and provided us with the support we really needed but probably didn’t know we needed. He spent the majority of her life with her, and that makes us feel so comforted knowing not only did she feel love from us when we were by her side, but the sweetest of love from RJ when we weren’t by her side.

RJ was there when our daughter ultimately passed away, and the way he assisted in every way he could to help keep her here with us is a feeling we will never forget. He helped every minute he could, although every minute we were there felt like hours. We are so lucky our daughter was loved by RJ. He will always have a special place in our hearts and in the memories we made with our daughter in her short time here on earth. We truly believe everything happens for a reason, this was one of the worst days of our lives but we couldn’t imagine any other nurse being by our side, thank you RJ.