Miracles

Submitted by Corey

We learned in mid February that my wife, Aja, was expecting. It was the greatest day of my life, and honestly the following 4 months were a dream. Everything in life was coming together, we were about to move to a bigger and better experience, and we were finally starting a family – nothing felt better than those 4 months.

June 11, 2022. We were moving Aja’s work materials from our house down to her new office in Calgary (about a 2 hour drive), and thankfully her parents and brother were there to help us out. We packed for a short amount of time before we went to her gynecologist appointment, where we were told that Harmon, our baby boy, was in perfect health. Strong heart beat, he was sitting in a good position, everything checked out. We returned to the move, where we had 2 trucks and 2 trailers packed.

As we were loading up, Aja wanted to jump in with her parents and brother so as to catch up. The first miracle, as their truck was stuffed full and she had to make the drive with me instead. The second miracle came when we pulled off to fuel up, while the in-laws travelled onwards. The trip was pretty bleak due to heavy rain, so we were travelling pretty slow, and we had only got past the halfway point when Aja said she didn’t feel right. She had experienced a separate medical issue earlier that month, registering her as a high-risk pregnancy, so we initially thought this could be related.

We pulled off at Innisfail, AB, and not 30 seconds after pulling off Aja’s water broke. By now she was hyper-ventilating and panicking. We drove straight to the hospital where I dropped her off at the emergency so that I could go find a parking spot. By the time I got inside, the nursing staff were just admitting her into a private room. The next 20 minutes are a blur to remember. Nurses were running everywhere, the doctor was preparing for an emergency delivery, and I was standing by Aja, who was crying and just looking at me repeatedly saying “Im sorry”. Apart from Aja, the only thing I recall vividly was hearing the doctor say, “there are no signs of life, we have to deliver now”. I am so very thankful that Aja blacked out for this entire experience, because it is one thing that I will hold closely for all time.

Harmon Wesley Roy was (still)born, weighing 1 lb, 1 oz. The doctor said that he was very well grown and developed for his age.

Miracle 3 – The hospital staff, all of them, were so incredibly wonderful. They gave us every support we could ask for, and more. In all of the tragedy, how they treated us and Harmon still makes us smile. By this time, Aja’s parents had managed to double back to be with us. the following 2 or so hours were just us in a hospital room, holding our son, watching him, imagining we would see him take his first breath. It was the most surreal moment of my life.

Then the doctor came back in, and I do not envy her for what she had to do. Since Harmon was past 20 weeks old, legally he had to be committed to a funeral service. What would you like to do with him, as in cremation, burial, etc? Do you know of any specific funeral home you would like to send him to? Among the questions, we also had to sign the paperwork showing that we had a stillborn child. Nothing to show our son had been both welcomed and then ushered away from this world. It was devastating. We agreed to send him to a funeral service back home, where we would have his remains cremated.

After all that, we had to get on the road again. This time we were ahead of Aja’s parents. The rain was pouring down, as it had been all day now. We had made it within 40 km of our destination when the trailer, full of work material, hydroplaned. The trailer spun out, took the truck with it, and we spun around two and a half times on the busiest highway in Alberta in the pouring rain. For those who know the QE2 Highway, it is always busy, but somehow this had occurred when there was a 40 second gap in the traffic. The 4th miracle. We both believe this was Harmon coming to see his Mom and Dad for the first time, checking in and making sure all is well. It was honestly a miracle we had not died.

That morning, we had been in paradise. Everything was good. Everything was safe. The three of us were a team. By the end of the day, after what seemed like trauma after trauma after trauma, there were two of us slowly going in to get a hotel room.