An obstetrics ward can be the happiest place in the world, said Tess Soholt, who just retired after 42 years of witnessing babies taking their first breaths.
She also knows that it can be the saddest place when a baby is stillborn. The medical term is "fetal demise," an accurate yet clinical description of the unimaginable.
Yet for weeks and months, imagination has taken flight as parents daydream about outgrown onesies, grass-stained T-shirts, prom attire, graduation tassels — the keepsakes of childhood.
Soholt seeks to provide grieving parents with a keepsake by making "angel gowns" from old wedding dresses. The tiny, elegant wraps and gowns lend dignity to the baby's life "no matter how short a time this life is with us," she said.
"When you lose a baby, people hurt for you," said Soholt, who lives in Golden Valley. She knows this too well. Her first delivery as an obstetrics nurse was stillborn, after the parents were in a car accident. Tragedy got even more personal two years ago when Soholt's grandson was stillborn.
"The hospital in Des Moines had a blue gown for the baby, and I've never forgotten how thoughtful that was," she said. "The family had something to acknowledge this life, and had something to keep."
Soholt's plan was simply to buy a used wedding dress and make some angel gowns from its abundant yardage. She'd had her eye on one at Empty the Nest, a thrift and consignment store in Golden Valley.
Owner Sharon Fischman opened the store after working for a moving company that specialized in getting aging parents into smaller apartments. "My mission is to have things be reused and have a new life," she said.
