Mom to Mom: From heartbreak to hope, Forrest Spence Fund helps thousands of Tennessee families

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month.

For one Memphis mother, losing her newborn son changed her life forever. From that heartbreak came a mission to help other families in their darkest days.

From that heartbreak came the Forrest Spence Fund — a nonprofit created in honor of her son to help other families in their darkest days.

Nineteen years ago, Brittany and David Spence were living through a parent’s worst nightmare. Their newborn son, Robert Forrest Spence, was rushed to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, where he spent 55 days fighting for his life.

“I held Forrest as he died in my arms, and my husband held me as he died in the only place he’d ever known, which was Le Bonheur Pediatric ICU,” said Brittany Spence, co-founder of the Forrest Spence Fund.

During their time at the hospital, Brittany and David knew they wanted to do something to help families facing similar circumstances. They had seen firsthand how a child’s illness can affect an entire family.

“We saw it all and we saw on these parents’ faces and grandparents’ faces ... devastation. And it wasn’t just devastation of I can’t fix my child, it was also, I’ve lost my job ... I don’t have enough money to get back and forth,” Spence said.

She says the fund was started the Saturday night before Forrest died:

“I don’t want to do anything but die with him, but David said we’re going to do more ... we can’t walk away from this.”

Nineteen years later, their fund has reached families across the region. The Forrest Spence Fund’s mission is to assist with the non-medical needs of critically or chronically ill children and their families throughout the Mid-South.

“We’ve helped over 194,000 families,” Spence said.

That support can look different for every family — from help with bills, to toys for children, photographs capturing precious final moments, and access to grief counseling.

Through donations, the organization has provided a total of 40,714 acts of institutional support, awarded 556 grants, and financially supported 547 families in attending counseling.

“I just hope that by what we’re doing day in and day out ... whether it’s a warm meal or a gas card or a meal voucher or a care bag or a lovie, that we’re just giving families hope,” Spence said.

Today, Brittany is raising three teenagers, and Forrest is still intertwined in their everyday lives.

“Even though my other children were never able to meet him, he’s very much a part of our family. They all very much say ‘their brother Forrest,’” she said.

Through the years, she’s learned that embracing the joy of raising her children doesn’t mean leaving Forrest behind. Both the grief of losing him and the love she carries for him remain part of her life.

“I would take 55 hard days over no days with him,” she said.

The Forrest Spence Fund works with children’s hospitals in Memphis, Nashville and Chattanooga, with hopes of eventually reaching even more families across the state.

To learn more about the Forrest Spence Fund and how you can donate, click here.

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