After three decades, family returns to Wesley’s NICU to pay homage to its nurses
The Sheldon family went to the Wesley NICU to give thanks to the nursing staff who helped their son.
It's been about 31 years since Cindy and Bill Sheldon spent some time in Wesley’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Back on Nov. 20, 1991, their twin boys, Cody and Tyler Sheldon, were born at about 26 weeks. Cody passed away a few hours after birth, but after a long, hard-won fight for life in the NICU, Tyler survived, going on to thrive as an educator and writer in Louisiana, where he is currently working on his PhD.
On July 25, the Sheldons, who now live in Hutchinson and are both educators themselves, returned to the NICU to pay homage to the nurses and medical staff that guided them through some of the hardest moments of their lives. As a thank you, the Sheldons donated a beautiful, renovated rocking chair that was painted a deep green and caned by Cindy Sheldon's father.
"We just kept going day by day and you guys stuck right there with us," Cindy Sheldon said. Three of the nurses that received the chair had been there 31 years ago. They plan to put it in the Parent Library.
The Sheldons also created a memory board with photos that they donated to the NICU. Managers plan to get it laminated and either hang it by the chair in the library or hang it near the handwashing sink, which the Sheldons said they remember as a constant task in their NICU journey.
"It feels so rewarding to know we did make a big different in their lives, and in his life," said Paula Manwarren, RN.