This beautiful little girl is Gretta Claire Wyman.
Gretta died last September, at the age of two, when she was caught in the cord of a window blind. One minute she is excitedly playing on the couch waiting to go see horses for the first time. The next minute ... she's gone. There are absolutely no words to describe the horror surrounding this kind of accident. There are absolutely no words to describe the grief that this family is feeling. This is a link to Gretta's mother's blog. If you feel so inclined, please drop by and offer her your condolences and words of support. What she is going through right now is unfathomable.
And then, please go check out this link regarding window blind safety.
A child dies every two weeks from strangulation on corded window treatments and children as old as 12 have been strangled. Much like we bolted all of our heavy furniture to the walls after reading this story, we've recently pulled down the blinds in our children's bedrooms and have opted to have curtains up, instead.
My heart absolutely breaks for any family that suffers the loss of a child. But I firmly believe that whenever something tragic occurs, it is so important to spread the word on the accident in an effort to inform and hopefully, protect others.
One child dies every two weeks from corded blind accidents.
That's one child too many.
We just moved into a new flat with blinds. The windows are quite high up and I doubt my son will be able to reach them easily but you have reminded me to double check that they are the safe ones. There are so many things that should occur to us as parents to protect our kids but until you read stories like this one, you don't necessarily click. You have to wonder how all of us survived to our 30s with parents who didn't have the internet to keep them up to date with potential hazards!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness. This is SO important. I read this mother's blog and I don't even know what to say.
ReplyDeleteI am speechless and have tears in my eyes. Oh god what a gorgeous little girl. Thanks for posting this, Jen. I hope that it helps someone to recognize the danger of something like a harmless cord.
ReplyDeleteWow wow wow. That poor mama.
Good job Jen. I have sent the Mom a note. How sad for the family and for all of us.
ReplyDeleteNONI