If You See a Purple Butterfly Sticker Near a Newborn, This Is What It Means

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When Millie and Louis first learned that one of their unborn twins had anencephaly, their world collapsed into a kind of nightmare no parent ever imagines. They were forced to prepare for a birth and a death at the same time, a contradiction that left them feeling torn between joy for one child and heartbreaking anticipation for the other. Their daughter Skye lived only a few moments after she arrived, yet those moments shaped everything that followed. Her life was brief, but her presence changed the way her parents saw the world.

In the neonatal intensive care unit, the everyday rhythm of hospital life kept moving as usual. Nurses asked routine questions intended for comfort or clarity. Visitors spoke with kind curiosity. Even a simple remark such as, “So, is it only the one baby?” pierced Millie and Louis with a pain that words could not explain. The staff meant well. The hurt came from the fact that people simply did not know Skye existed. Without a way to communicate their loss, the couple faced a second layer of grief. It was the grief of feeling invisible in the middle of a crowd.