Maine Family of Three Enduring a Battle That No One Should Ever Have to

This is one of those stories that you see and it just hits you different, partially because it breaks your heart, and also partially because the strength and love shown is just straight up admirable (and almost seems impossible.)

Simmons Family, Standish, Maine

I was recently scrolling through local news sites when I came across this story from NEWS CENTER Maine about Ben and Taryn Simmons in Standish, Maine, who are going through an experience that no parent should ever even have to think about, let alone live through.

According to the NEWS CENTER Maine story, after struggling for years to get pregnant and start a family, Ben and Taryn finally found out they were expecting in August 2022.

And although the pregnancy went mostly smoothly through the first two trimesters, an ultrasound showed 29 weeks in that there was restricted blood flow through the umbilical cord, causing their son, Cody, to be born seven weeks early at just over three pounds.

While there are plenty of stories throughout New England of children being born premature, then over time becoming healthy enough to get the go-ahead to head home following weeks of treatment, that unfortunately hasn't been the case for Ben and Taryn's little man with a big heart.

Rare Heart Condition

For more or less his entire life, Cody has lived in a hospital, whether it be here in Maine or down in Boston, Massachusetts, according to Taryn, after being diagnosed with a rare congenital heart defect known as Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return (TAPVR).

We have been in Maine Med three times and Boston three times. Cody's most recent admission [at Boston Children's Hospital] has been over three months long.

And while I don't personally have children and can't speak first-hand to what it must feel like as a parent to see your child hooked up to equipment in a hospital all day, let alone for almost their entire life thus far, it's also something no parent should ever be able to speak on first-hand.

I have, however, witnessed friends and family members go through similar, scary, uncertain times like the Simmons Family is right now. And, if there's any possible silver lining that can be found in any situation remotely close to this, it's that while fear and exhaustion exist, so does love and hope.

Love existing in the fact that in situations like this, your people step up for you. Without question. Without even being asked. They just show up on their own and are immediately there for you.

Cooking and bringing homecooked meals to you while you're spending every available second you can inside of a hospital room, verbally and mentally speaking to your child to keep going, keep getting stronger, and overcome the obstacles in front of them.

Checking in through a quick text message or phone call, even if it goes unanswered. But just being there to show support. Or, organizing fundraisers and GoFundMe pages -- like this one for Cody -- to help alleviate at least a little stress with the volcano of medical bills that are being faced.

Hope existing in the fact that every single second of every single day, regardless of the fact almost an entire life has been spent in the confines of a hospital room, that this little life that some might incorrectly call helpless, is in fact one of the biggest bad@$$es in the world.

Because above all else, he does one thing.

Just. Keeps. Fighting.

For himself. For his mom and dad, who tried for so long and took so many avenues to create him. For his family -- which now consists of not only his blood relatives, but also now his community -- to see him finally come home. Smile in his crib. Laugh. Crawl. Speak. Walk.

It's something no parent should have to go through.

But, silently, because the three of them are going through it and have been ever since February 2023, the bond being created between Ben, Taryn, and Cody right now is going to be the most solid, unbreakable ones ever seen.

And without a doubt, when the time comes where Cody does eventually get the green light to go to his home in Standish -- there won't be one obstacle this Simmons Family of three can't and won't crush together.

To join the family, friends, and strangers both in Maine and from away that have donated to the Simmons Family to ease the burden of Cody's medical bills, the GoFundMe page that has been set up is just a click away.