26 | NOVEMBER 4 • 2021 

OUR COMMUNITY

I

n May of 2020, Brandon 
and Kate Movitz, both 33 of 
Bloomfield Hills, welcomed 
their new son, Pierce, into the 
world.
Pierce was known as a 
“COVID baby,” or a baby born 
during the COVID-19 pandem-
ic, which gave Brandon Movitz 
a unique chance to be with his 
son as he worked remotely from 
home. “I didn’t have that long 
with him,” Movitz says, “but I felt 
like I did because I was with him 
every single day.”
On July 21, 2020, when Pierce 
was three months old, Movitz 
woke up to find that his new-
born son, who had been sleeping 
nearby, had unexpectedly passed 
away. “It was a fluke,” Movitz 
says. “He was a perfectly healthy 
baby. One minute he was breath-
ing; one minute he was not.”
Despite the unimaginable 
grief of losing a child, especially 
a newborn, Movitz says he and 
his wife were lucky. They could 
afford burial costs and didn’t 
have to deal with financial stress-
ors that make navigating grief 
that much harder. He learned 
through attending different grief groups 
that many families throughout Metro 
Detroit struggle with this on a regular 
basis, often without assistance.
Seeing the need in the community, par-
ticularly the Jewish community, Movitz 
started the Pierced Forever Foundation, 
a nonprofit organization named in honor 
of his son that helps provide financial and 
burial support to parents who have lost 
their babies.
“I really want to help all parents who 

have lost a baby,” he says. “I feel their 
pain. It doesn’t matter how it happened; it 
doesn’t matter if it was cancer or what the 
circumstances were.”
For the Movitz family, they were bless-
ed with a new son, Beau, this year.
Through the Pierced Forever 
Foundation, officially launched in July 
2021, Movitz has already raised $25,000 
in preparation to assist families who 
need support in taking care of burial 
costs for their babies. While he has yet 

to help the first family, Movitz is 
currently working on laying down 
the groundwork so that when 
the need arises, the foundation is 
ready to step in.

FINDING AND SHARING FAITH
“When my son passed away, I 
was completely caught off guard,” 
Movitz recalls. “I refound my 
faith, and that’s what got me 
through the hardest of times.” 
Movitz, who is Jewish, and his 
wife Kate, who is Lutheran, both 
leaned into their faith for support.
“We both have a really strong 
faith,” he says, “and that’s what 
holds our bond.”
Being able to help the Jewish 
community and work with Jewish 
funeral homes in the area was 
important to Brandon Movitz as 
he developed the Pierced Forever 
Foundation. Even on the founda-
tion’s website, families can read 
faith-based resources and scrip-
tures.
“Faith is such a big part of my 
life that I wanted to make sure I 
included that in at least some of 
the resources I could provide for 
other parents,” he explains. 
But in speaking to other fathers in his 
grief groups that have also lost their chil-
dren, Movitz saw an even greater need.
“What I found was that most of these 
dads didn’t have the resources to give 
their baby or their children a proper buri-
al,” Movitz says. “
And I realized how for-
tunate I was not just to be able to do that, 
but that it wasn’t a stressor for me after 
my son passed away.”
It was in those moments that Movitz, a 
health coach, decided to make it his mis-

Foundation aims to eliminate financial stress 
associated with burying a child or baby.

ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

An Unimaginable Pain

Kate and 
Brandon 
Movitz, with 
their sons 
Jude, 4, 
 
and Beau, 
5 months.

