Two Kisses for Maddy.

i've been reading Matt Logelin's blog for a few years now, after he became well-known but before he became a NY Times best-selling author. he and his wife Liz were high school sweethearts and had been together for 12 years. they grew up in Minneapolis (!) and had moved out to L.A. where they bought a home with dreams of starting a family. They became pregnant and Liz had a difficult pregnancy with weeks of bed rest. their daughter Madeline was born 7 weeks early on March 24, 2008. 27 hours later, Liz was dead. on her way to hold her daughter for the first time, a freak blood clot in her leg shot up to her lungs and ended her life. Matt was suddenly a widower with a very premature baby girl.

while some would've just totally given up on life, Matt pressed into the pain, fought through it, and made a pact with himself to become the best f*cking dad ever (his words). his blog became a way for him to show his family in MN that he and Madeline were surviving, and later it became an online community where he sought parenting advice, and others sought grieving advice. (it's also a place to share his photographs and talk about music & travel... you know, normal blog fodder.)

it's fair to say that his life has completely changed, and not in all terrible ways. he's started a non-profit in Liz's honor to help other widows/widowers, and he was able to quit his job at Yahoo! in order to write a memoir about his experience. i finally got it from the library this week and it's really great. had i not known his story, i'm sure i would have passed it up. i'm totally guilty of judging books by their covers, and this one looks way too precious for me. but Matt's voice is honest, sarcastic, darkly humorous, and not at all afraid of the F word. also, the material is pretty unique from the blog, i don't feel like much content had been recycled. i would recommend visiting his blog and getting to know a little more of the story as it unfolded in real time, and then reading the book. both are well worth your time.

(random thing- Liz's MN memorial service took place at Lakewood Memorial Chapel, where Matt and i were married a year later. i feel like we were in good company.)