Susie Q's Kids honors beloved daughter with gift bags tailor-made for nonprofits
(FOX 2) - When Susie succumbed to her illnesses at the age of 31, it left her mother and the rest of her family with tough questions.
"How can we as a family start over again without her?" Dr. Mary Welsh asked.
Another question: how to honor her legacy.
Susie battled a long list of illnesses before dying from sepsis. In and out of the medical care for years, she grew well-acquainted with the daily ebbs and flows of being in the hospital. Not just how to pass the time, but ways to cheer someone up.
"She understood the value of a teddy bear and a blanket," Welsh said. "Just activities like coloring books."
It was her time in the hospital that inspired the work that Welsh now does in honor of her daughter. She came up with Susie Q's Kids.
"We had her birthday come around a couple of months after she passed and we all got together," she said. "Everybody took their kids out and they bought things for another child.,"
The effort of bringing joy to other children has grown into a much larger initiative. Collecting toys, games, coloring books, puzzles - anything that could help kids going through a hard time - would be gifted.
They may end up at the side of a hospital bed sor in a homeless shelter. The gifts, which are bagged, are custom-tailored for all nonprofits.
"A shelter would get a hygeine kit. An autism center would get sensory items. The kids that are in a grief center, they're going to get a grief book," said Welsh.