Gerald Kumpula of Cokato, MN, enjoys keeping busy in his home’s wood-making workshop. So when he saw a baby’s crib at a local yard sale this past spring, he thought it would make a great bench. The mother, Valerie Watts, reluctantly sold it to him, finally ready to part with a reminder of the fact that her son, Noah, was stillborn last year and that it was time for her to let go of the nursery items she had collected for her newborn’s room.
But when Gerald discovered that the crib had never been used because Valerie’s son was stillborn, he decided to get busy transforming that crib into a very special type of bench.
Gerald talked it over with his wife and they both thought it was only fitting and proper to help Mrs. Watts come to terms with her grief over her lost child by returning her son’s crib which he had purchased at her yard sale, transformed into a special memorial bench to commemorate her son’s existence.
Mrs. Watts was completely surprised by the elderly gentleman’s act of generosity. And now the crib which previously held a bittersweet reminder of her dead son is now a source of comfort, thanks to Gerald Kumpula’s random act of kindness.