For Matt and Lizz Logelin, their relationship started as a fairytale romance, first meeting while in high school and immediately becoming sweethearts, then getting married.
The newlyweds were completely and utterly in love, and outsiders thought they were the perfect couple.
Matt described his wife, saying:
“She was perfect. She was perfect in every way. She was smart, funny. We had been together 8 years before we actually got married.”
Soon after getting married, Liz found out she was pregnant. The couple was ecstatic.
Liz decided to start a blog in order to chronicle her pregnancy and keep long-distance friends and family updated.
This proved incredibly helpful when Liz was put on 5 weeks of bed rest— 3 of which required hospitalization.
In their blog, Matt explains, “Liz had low amniotic fluid. Baby had her cord around her neck. Baby’s heart rate dropped (multiple times). Liz almost delivered (multiple times).”
Despite the complications, Liz gave birth via Cesarean section to a beautiful baby girl named Madeline.
Matt described the birth to the Rachael Ray Show, saying:
“They took Madeline out. They got to show her to Liz for just the briefest of seconds. Because of the C-section they told her she had to stay in bed for around 24 hours.”
He continued, “The next morning the nurses came in, and they said, ‘Okay, we’re going to take you to go see Madeline.’
“[Liz] was very excited. They got her up and she started to walk around the room a little bit. Then she just said, ‘I feel light-headed,’ and dropped.”
Just 27 hours after giving birth, Liz was dead as the result of a massive pulmonary embolism— never even getting the chance to hold her newborn daughter.
Her husband explained to the Racheal Ray Show:
“She had a blood clot in her leg that traveled up to her lungs and then blocked both passageways in the lungs. It was so massive, it was pretty much instant.”
Matt was heartbroken and lost.
He didn’t know how he would live without the love of his life— never mind how he would learn to be the single parent of a precious, little girl.
In an attempt to ease his grieving, Matt logged on to Liz’s pregnancy blog. Before he knew it, he found himself typing.
He was mainly focused on showing his family that he was doing alright. He tells the Rachael Ray Show:
“I just wanted to give them visual proof that I was succeeding. And that’s how it started.”
Soon, however, Matt had accrued a support network consisting of about 40,000 readers per month, all offering parenting wisdom, support, and kind words for the new father.
He tells the Rachael Ray Show, “I never dreamt that people would actually give me advice or that they would help me through this process… It helps me every day.”
Liz and Matt’s story and blog have garnered headlines around the world— but it seems the father has left the bloggosphere (at least for the time being), with his last blog post dated to 2014.
In addition to blogging, Matt has since authored a book entitled Maddie: A Memoir of Loss and Love and has founded the Liz Logelin Foundation, an organization that provides grants to families with children who have lost a parent.