The Ari Foss Story
Ari Foss was our first child. Ari was our beautiful baby boy. Ari was a perfectly healthy baby. I was 39 weeks 5 days pregnant when my water broke. We were so excited to meet our little man. I was in labor about 8 hours when we were told I would need a routine C Section. As I was being wheeled into surgery I remember one of the medical staff saying to us “The good news is your son will be here in about 20 minutes.”
Ari Foss Silverman was born on July 30, 2014 at 10:06 pm. Ari never cried though. Ari never took a breath. Ari had no heartbeat. Our son was gone.
“What happened to our son?” “What went wrong?” “How could this be happening to us?” “Why, why, why, why”
We were devastated and attempting to grasp what happened. In an instant, we went from what should have been the happiest moment of our lives to experiencing the worst, most tragic moment of our lives. We were overwhelmed with grief and sadness.
At some point during the next few hours, my husband, Aaron, mentioned we had to plan Ari’s funeral.
On top of the emotional stress of grieving for our infant son and my physical stress from labor and a C Section, we were then hit with another stress – the financial stress of paying for an unexpected funeral. We should have been planning on how to bring him home not how to bury him. Aaron took the reins of planning the funeral, so I could focus on healing from surgery.
He started doing the research and calling local funeral homes and cemeteries to gather information. My husband and I had to have the unpleasant conversation of where our finances were and what that meant for what kind of funeral and burial we could afford for our infant son.
Aaron told me not to worry about the money and that it was not important at this time. Due to everything that had happened, the financial stress compounded the already unfathomable grieving process and vice versus. Although he did not admit it at the time, the financial concern weighed heavily on him as well.
He made the calls and then we made the plans. Although we tried to stay middle of the road in the funeral planning, the costs mounted QUICKLY.
Fortunately, through family and friends, a lot of our financial stress was alleviated. My mother-in-law and one of my best friends stepped in and raised money to help pay the unexpected funeral expenses, so we could concentrate on grieving for our son Ari and the physical stress of my recovery.
From the generosity of our family and friends, the idea for the Ari Foss Foundation was born.
Laura Silverman, Ari’s Forever Loving Mother