pegkerr | A story in today's local paper (Reply)

From today's Star Tribune:

Like many first-time parents, Matt and Liz Logelin were understandably nervous.

Two months before her due date, Liz was put on bed rest in early March to keep from going into labor prematurely. Twice, she was wheeled into the delivery room, and twice, the baby changed its mind.

So when baby Madeline finally arrived on March 24, small but healthy, the entire family breathed a sigh of relief.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Liz, 30, passed out the next day on her way to hold her daughter for the first time.

Within minutes, the young mother was dead from a blood clot no one knew she had developed.

Suddenly, Matt Logelin was facing life as a new dad and a 30-year-old widower all at once.

As his world fell apart, Logelin turned for solace to the Internet, which has become an unexpected lifeline for many sharing joy or grief. In his case, both. He told their story in a blog, which he subtitled: "Life and death. All in a 27-hour-period."

Living in Los Angeles, he had been using the blog to keep friends and family in Minnesota up to date on Liz's pregnancy. But his online journal, with its spare prose and poignant photos, has taken on, in his words, "a life of its own."

Logelin grew up in Minnetonka, along with his wife, the former Elizabeth Goodman. "I knew that people were going to be able to read this. I didn't think anybody would.

"I figured it would just be the family," he said.

But he has heard from hundreds of friends around the country, lots of old school pals of his and hers, all sharing kind words. Strangers have been so moved by his online writing that they have reached out via e-mail from other states, or for a few, from around the world, offering empathy and parenting tips.

"For me, it's been helpful to kind of talk about this stuff," said Logelin, who married Liz, his high school sweetheart, in 2005. "Every day I have to deal with this thing that's missing in my life."