After experiencing a tragedy, many people are inspired to find a way to give back. Diane Leopold has found her way. Her heartfelt, handmade donations to the Aultman Birth Center are now helping parents who are enduring the same painful experience she did nearly 24 years ago.

In 1995, Diane was devastated when she lost her first baby girl at just 21 weeks. Unfortunately, her daughter’s face and head failed to develop properly due to the way she was attached to Diane’s uterine lining. It was a very rare occurrence and of course, heartbreaking for Diane and her family.

“I was just glad she wasn’t ever in pain,” Diane remembers. Her father came up with the name for her tiny girl – Angel.

Along with the shock and pain of the situation, Diane recalls being upset that she had nothing to dress Angel in for her funeral. In fact, she had sent her sister out to shop for something suitable. Months passed by and Diane continued to mourn the loss of her baby girl.

After the loss, however, Diane did receive some good news from Dr. Gill, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at Aultman. He told her that Angel was a very rare circumstance and he didn’t think it would happen with Diane’s future children. Diane was thrilled with this news, and when she became pregnant again, Dr. Gill took good care of her once more. This time, Diane came home with a healthy baby girl.  Throughout all the happy years with her second daughter, she still recalled the pain she had felt that day so many years ago.

One day, while scrolling through Facebook, Diane saw some photos of tiny baby clothes made from wedding dresses. That gave her an idea. She had finally found her way to give back to the place that had taken such good care of her and Angel so many years before.

“I had saved my own dress in case my daughter would want to wear it,” Diane explained. “But girls just don’t want to wear their mother’s dresses these days!”

Diane used her own wedding dress to make the first set of “Angel Baby” clothes. And with an additional donated wedding dress, she was able to make nearly 20 dresses and pantsuits to donate to the Aultman Birth Center.

Diane was especially happy to donate her first set of “Angel Baby” clothes to Aultman, as she has always been very thankful for the care she received from Dr. Gill and his team in the birth center.

“I just want to make things a little easier on families who are going through what I went through,” she said. Diane continues to make baby clothes out of donated wedding dresses. She hopes to make enough to take to other area birth centers in the future. And with each donated dress, Diane also makes a handkerchief and a heart, which she gives back to the donor as a keepsake. Donors also receive a card to commemorate their donation. Diane feels that repurposing these dresses is the perfect way to give back while helping grieving families heal from their losses.

**Thank you for your interest in sharing your dress for this cause. Unfortunately, we are no longer able to accept donations at this time.