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continued from page 48

Leah Zacks
holds up a baby
gown made
from donated
wedding dresses.

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them, the owners often donate them
to Angels Above.
Zacks said she wouldn’t be sur-
prised if some Jewish women are
among those who benefit from
the Angels Above packages. Many
parents want to spend some time
with the deceased infant and to take
photos that will be the only ones
they’ll ever have. They can use the
angel gowns and wraps during this
time, even if they don’t use them for
burial.

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TIME FOR CLOSURE
To help the families spend time with
their newborns, Angels Above raises
money to buy CuddleCots for hospi-
tals, which cost about $3,000 each.
A CuddleCot is a cooling device
that enables the baby to spend
more time in a private room with
the parents before being taken to
the hospital morgue, Zacks said.
The CuddleCot is usually placed in
a bassinet or crib and covered with
a sheet or blanket. “This allows the
family to grieve privately, take pic-
tures and comfort each other,” she
said.
In the past, the deceased new-
borns were whisked away, and par-
ents often didn’t have a chance to
even see them, Zacks said.
“Most hospitals today recognize
the need for the family to have time
to be together and grieve,” said
Zacks, who worked as a pediatric
nurse before her own children were
born. She now helps manage two
medical offices for her physician
husband, Mark.
The group’s first CuddleCots went
to Henry Ford Hospital in West
Bloomfield, Hurley Hospital in Flint
and St. John Hospital in Detroit.
Mark Zacks, an amateur photog-

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50

February 23 • 2017

jn

rapher, also helps bereaved families
by retouching photos of deceased
infants and their families, and pre-
paring DVDs for the parents. He
works through another group called
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, which
provides free professional-quality
portraits to parents who have lost a
newborn.
Alice Zacks is passing her pas-
sion on to her granddaughter, Leah
Zacks of Huntington Woods, who
will be 7 this Saturday. Leah accom-
panies her grandmother to Lafferty’s
home whenever she has a day off
from first grade at Detroit Country
Day School.
On a recent Thursday, Leah was
busy removing pearl beads from a
wedding gown panel. She planned
to take them home and make them
into angel bracelets.
Alice is teaching Leah to sew. Last
summer, the two made a special sun-
dress for Leah.
“We love to have Leah come; she’s
always such a joy,” said Angels Above
volunteer Jennifer McDonald of
Redford.
Angels Above also collects brides-
maid and prom dresses and gives
them to high schools to distribute
to students who can’t afford a new
dress. The organization requests,
but doesn’t require, a $10 donation
for each dress. They use the funds to
ship the angel packages to hospitals.
Their next prom dress drive is
April 15. Women with bridal gowns,
bridesmaid dresses or prom dresses
to donate can contact Lafferty at
AngelsAboveBabyGownsMI@gmail.
com.
Although the organization is a
registered Michigan nonprofit, it does
not have federal nonprofit status and
donations are not tax deductible. •

