Welcome back here. Time now is
816. Glad you're with us.
A nonprofit called the Comfort Cub,
giving comfort to those suffering from grief,
from trauma and from loss.
And on national heal of Heart Day,
which is tomorrow,
they'll be distributing comfort
Cubs to San Diego County hospitals.
And we have Gracie Del Mar joining us.
Program development manager of Comfort
Cub here to tell us all about this.
Gracie, good morning.
Good to have you with us.
Thank you for having me.
And I want to talk about
your personal experience.
Because you've benefited from comfort Cubs,
which we have on display here.
If you could share about that would happen,
absolutely. So in 2010,
we, my husband and I,
lost our first child, Jocelyn,
and when we were in the hospital at Kaiser,
a social worker came in and offered the
comfort cub and many things I was saying
no to at the time of the offerings.
And the comfort cub was something
that we were we said yes to,
and we were so grateful.
It is our most cherished gift.
And it's a generational gift where
my sons now have slept with it,
and my 7, my now 8 year old,
still sleeps
with it. That's so sweet.
Yeah. And the fact that you had
children after your loss. Yeah.
Obviously we're happy for your family,
but so sorry you went through that,
to have gone through such a terrible tragedy.
And, you know,
let's talk about how these help.
I mean, these are unique.
It's not your. I know on TV right now,
you're seeing a very adorable teddy bear.
Very. They're they're heavy.
Yes. They are heavy.
The weight is definitely.
And there's a purpose for it. Yeah.
So Marcella Johnson, the founder,
lost her child in over 20 years ago,
and she was experiencing arm achiness
and chest pain. And she didn't
realize why she was experiencing this.
And so she held a terracotta
pot of flowers and found relief.
And so just holding something weighted.
And she was like, OK, we can't walk around.
We're holding hard things. So we need to.
Think of something else too.
Wow. To be comforting.
And so the prototype was
developed and this is
proven to work. I mean,
obviously her experience.
Your experience, yeah.
So many people have benefited from this.
Absolutely. Yeah. So originally
created for Perry, not perinatal
bereavement, pregnancy loss, infant loss,
now is used for so many different reasons.
Marcella and her wisdom has created
these. And we actually partnered with
United and took over 1000. All day.
The community and just handing
these out to teachers, the first
responders, the students, the
families. Wow. So.
And we just showed some video
of you distributing these out.
You're a San Diego nonprofit.
We are great that we got
this local connection,
but you're impacting helping
people all around the country.
All around the country.
Yeah. So all the
hospitals in San Diego have them,
and tomorrow we're going to be
spending our time taking them to.
Over about 15 hospitals in the in the
county and we want to make sure that
anybody leaving the hospital and in this
a sad time they don't leave empty armed
and is there a specific department
you go to in the hospitals
labor delivery and at rates we're
in because even though their
children are there and their babies
they can't hold them sometimes and
it's a good transitional comfort
right and I'm glad you're bringing this
up especially obviously tomorrow's
Valentine's Day. The day of love.
But it's a day where a lot of
people go through heartache. Yeah.
So to heal hearts and I don't even
want to let go of this to you guys,
right this very helpful to
have these when I'm doing interviews
because it comforts me. Yeah.
This is very helpful. Yeah. And I mean,
there's a real science to that.
There's been proof that there is a actual,
yeah, like physical, mental benefit.
Absolutely. So what it is actually
helping is the Taco Subo cardiomyopathy.
And it is a actually a deadly syndrome where
the heart enlarges and causes chest pain,
heart, heart attack like pain.
And that's what Marcella
was feeling 20 years ago.
We didn't know that and now we know it.
Has the broken heart syndrome.
Ohh, it's named syndrome.
It's a name. So
the sadness does physically
impact the health of your heart.
Yes. Oh, Oh my goodness.
And then to hold something.
I mean it seems simple,
right, to hold the teddy bear,
but the weight and then that that
heart can actually go back to what
it normally should be like. Yes.
That deep touch pressure really
helps to just comfort soothe,
helps calm the breathing,
the nervous system,
and helps people sleep.
Like that's a big thing, like.
You mentioned my 7 year old sleep,
but I have seen grown men and
women say I've slept with this
for six months because of the
trauma I was experiencing,
and they have been able to sleep
and finally get that night's
rest that they need because
our body needs sleep to heal.
Of course, if you're not sleeping and
you're going through the sadness,
that's got to be a lot
of other health impacts.
Obviously here in San Diego we
have such a kind community.
People love to help.
What can people do if they want to support
this, if they want to support and we do.
Need the support?
I mean we give these out for to for
free for at no cost to those who are
experiencing child loss, pregnancy loss.
And so go to the comfort cub.org and
they can donate there and anytime
somebody donates one is given.
So anytime one is purchased in
lieu of flowers for a loss,
we give one away.
Love this. What a great idea and a
great way to help people. And thank
you for sharing your personal story.
I know that must have been so difficult.
And I'm glad that there are people that
are helping out.
Families who go through loss.
That's so important.
So definitely a comfortcub.org is the
place to go if you'd like to help out.
If you've been touched by this, Gracie, good
to meet you. Good to meet you.