Christian Woodruff Obituary, Death – Christian Before you could even open your eyes on the day of your birth, we could tell you were unique. The chances were against you when you were just 1 lb. 9 oz., but you gradually became stronger than anyone had anticipated. We visited you every day while you were in the hospital. For 91 nights, we came every night to hug you, read to you, and put you to sleep. For your first Christmas with us, we couldn’t wait to bring you home. When the day finally arrived, you were eager to get home. The first Christmas we had was peaceful and full of family. Everyone’s life had already been altered by you, especially ours. Even on New Year’s Eve, we were all sound asleep by nine! You and your father rarely stayed up past eight. The following few months saw doctors studying you more and more to determine why you were still so small.
Everyone could immediately see that you were unique and remarkable the moment they saw you. Despite your stature, you continued to grow each month, becoming more than anyone had anticipated. Other mothers remarked on how lovely and aware you were when we took you out. They were always shocked when we revealed your age to them. Even though it took you weeks to reach five pounds, you always appeared and behaved like such an ancient soul. We never questioned your strength, but we had no idea how strong you would become. You were put under much greater strain than anyone ever ought to be. Every time we sent you off for a new procedure and every time you returned, we were so afraid. Every time you returned, you helped us recall how resilient you were. Every time you returned to us, you increased our pride in having raised you.
When you underwent what we believed to be your final operation for a while a few weeks ago, you didn’t return to us better than before; instead, we watched as you fell ill. Your fantastic days were contrasted by your terrifying bad days. Daddy would reassure me that you were unique, strong, and stronger than everyone else when I was anxious or scared by the physicians. We believed you could overcome this because of everything else you had been through. However, when the weeks passed into the days, the days into the hours, and the hours into the minutes, we realized we were losing you. I assured you that everything would be fine, that you didn’t need to be courageous, and that you would turn out to be an angel. You could even grow to be a large angel. I assured you that you would feel better and that you could save more babies who needed your courage by being an angel.
We are aware that you are here for a reason, but perhaps Heaven has more need of you. But we were unable to let you go. We wish we knew why you had to leave. Perhaps one day we will. What we do know is that your life will always expand and is bigger than this letter or these words. We always talk to you and bring you with us wherever we go. No one else will ever love or miss you as much as we do. No one’s life has been altered more than ours simply by getting to know you. We fear occasionally that you don’t miss us as much as we do, but you’re always there. We wish you a week full of bananas and binkies.
We need your strength to get through this, so please look after us. You are our son, our best teacher, and are now our angel, and you will always be. We’re all still going to be together forever like I told you every day. With love, your parents Christian’s funeral services will be held at Central United Protestant Church, 1124 Stevens Drive, Richland, WA, on Saturday, September 12, at 2:00 pm. There will be a visitation one hour before the ceremony. Please bring a baby blanket so that we can donate it in Christian’s honor to the NICU and the PICU at the Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital in place of flowers.
