My SD Moms Vista, CA– San Diego Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) will pay it forward by spreading love and healing to Mothers across America who have lost a child by building 1,000 therapeutic Comfort
Cub teddy bears on May 5, 2016. The mothers will gather at the North Coast Church at 2405 N. Santa Fe Avenue in Vista from 9:15 until 10:30 AM to assemble the bears for delivery before Mother’s Day.
MOPS member Gracie Del Mar will never forget her beautiful daughter Jocelyn. When Jocelyn died shortly after birth, Del Mar received a weighted therapeutic teddy bear called The Comfort Cub from her hospital. “I was so grateful to have something to hold after losing my child. It brought comfort to my arms during the worst time in my life” Del Mar said. “When my MOPS group was looking for a service project to do in honor of Mother’s Day, I immediately thought of The Comfort Cub because it was so helpful and reassuring to me.”
Invented by San Diego Mom, Marcella Johnson, after the loss of her son caused her to have physical chest pains, The Comfort Cub was designed to help women who were suffering from the same “Broken Heart Syndrome” that Johnson experienced. Little was known about this disease when Marcella lost her son, George, 17 years ago. Today Broken Heart Syndrome is becoming better understood as more baby boomers lose their spouses and develop symptoms that resemble cardiac distress. Recent articles in TIME magazine and the Wall Street Journal have called attention to the physical symptoms that are experienced with a broken heart. The Comfort Cub has been clinically proven through a study done by San Diego Hospice to reduce the physical manifestations of grief and other causes of extreme stress.
The Comfort Cub is available at every hospital in San Diego through onsite social workers and nursing teams. An ongoing effort is underway to have the Comfort Cubs available and is expanding to top hospitals across the USA such as the Mayo Clinic, Mass General Dana Farber and UCLA. It is intended to help a mother heal after the loss of a child of any age.
“With the help of all of these caring San Diego moms we will be able to heal a lot of broken hearts in time for Mother’s Day,” Johnson said.