2019 Walk to Remember — Opening Speech

 My name is Eric High and standing next to me is my wife Holly. We are the proud parents of three children: Eleanor, James and Warren. Two of our children are here with us today. Their brother, our son, James is not. James was born on May 22nd, 2015 – about a week after his due date. We had decided to go to a movie to help take Holly’s mind off of the frustration that inevitably comes with being more than nine months pregnant. Holly’s contractions started on the walk from the car to the movie theatre and about twenty minutes in to Pitch Perfect 2, things had progressed to the point that we knew that it was time to head to the hospital. When we finally got to MGH, there were no delivery rooms available, so the nurses set us up in a temporary room off of the main hallway. We started doing laps around the floor to pass the time, but Holly’s contractions quickly became too painful. Luckily, a room opened up just as we were walking back to our little hallway cubby and within the hour our second child, James Alexander High was born. His sister got to hold him in the recovery room the next morning and we took James home later that day to start our lives as a happy, healthy family of four.

Never once during the ordeal at the hospital did the thought cross our minds that something bad might happen if we didn’t get into a delivery room in time. Never once did we worry about James when we took him home the next day. Never once did we feel the need to rest our hands on his chest while he slept to convince ourselves that he was still breathing. Never once did the thought cross our minds that something bad might happen to him when Holly returned to work in August and James joined his sister at the daycare down the street. We lived every day that we had with James as a happy, loving family – confident in who we were as parents and the decisions that we were making for ourselves and our children.

 It turns out that our blissful ignorance, while wonderful, was misplaced. On September 29th, 2015, James died suddenly and unexpectedly. All of our confidence was taken away. Every second, every minute, every hour and every day was a constant struggle to convince ourselves that we were good parents, that we did the right things, that we did everything that we possibly could have done to save our son and that we didn’t miss anything that could’ve prevented his death. The shock of losing a child to SIDS is indescribable as many of you here today can attest. Holly and I are still dealing with the emotional turmoil that followed James’ death four years later. However, we are dealing with it thanks to help from many of you and countless others who could not be here today. That’s not to say that we still don’t have days where living life without all of our children with us seems like a reality that is too difficult to comprehend. This is a community that no one chooses to be a part of, but we know that we need each other. Holly and I walk today in memory of James. We walk today in memory of our blissful ignorance. We walk today in memory of our family of five. We walk today in support of S.68, a SIDS support bill that with the help of Senator Lovely and Representative Soter will hopefully soon pass into law. And we walk today for all of the families who understand or who will unfortunately soon come to understand what it means to walk in life after SIDS.

-Eric and Holly High