Donna’s Good Things: Acorns, T-shirts, and a Lasting Legacy

Shop clothing and accessories featuring Donna’s artwork on Paper Clouds Apparel now through Sunday. Your purchase will honor Donna’s legacy and help fund children’s cancer research.

When our daughter Donna died at 4 years old of an aggressive brain tumor called papillary meningioma, we started a charity in her name and the logo was an acorn. The acorns found us, it turns out, as on Donna’s first birthday after her death, two of her playmates separately gifted us envelopes with acorns in them that the girls had collected, independent of one another.

I remember thinking, “What are the chances of that?” followed by, “What do acorns symbolize?”

A quick Google search gave me the answer. Acorns symbolize many things, including youth, potential, strength, protection, and the concept of maturity — that patience is required for a small acorn to grow into a tall oak. For that last reason, acorns also symbolize perseverance, hard work, and the possibility of being rewarded when that work is done.

I wept that night I opened those envelopes full of acorns. I felt with total certainty that Donna was speaking to us through those acorns. She wanted us to remain strong in her absence, to know that our grief was going to be hard work, and that her potential, cut short by cancer, could be fulfilled by honoring those things that she embodied so completely — joy, wonder, strength, grit, grace.

Helping other children with cancer survive both their diagnosis and their treatment, to live and live more comfortably, is a fairly amazing legacy for a 4-year-old little girl.

One way we pay tribute to Donna’s memory is by doing good things in her name. The Donna’s Good Things Campaign with St. Baldrick’s has raised almost $250,000 since 2012 with the help of some amazing shavees and volunteers. Helping other children with cancer survive both their diagnosis and their treatment, to live and live more comfortably, is a fairly amazing legacy for a 4-year-old little girl.

Our latest effort to support the important work of St. Baldrick’s is a t-shirt campaign through our friends at Paper Clouds Apparel. Four of Donna’s designs are being featured through Sunday, June 29. Using the “shirt builder,” folks can customize t-shirts, hats, and totes with one of Donna’s original artworks. There are sizes for babies, kids, women, and men and lots of colors to choose from, which is great, as Donna was a huge fan of rainbows (which just happens to be one of the designs!).

Fifty percent of the shirt proceeds will be donated to St. Baldrick’s. The other 50% will go to support Paper Clouds Apparel’s efforts to employ and support people with special needs. This campaign is a win-win.

When you lose a child so young, it is easy to lose them in every way, both tangibly and intangibly. Making peace with the tangible loss — no longer being able to hold, love, giggle with, tuck in, fuss over, or do any of the things we do to care for our children — is something that is inevitable for survival. Your arms ache as well as your heart.

As a grieving mom, I also struggle with the thought of losing my Donna in the intangible ways — forgetting her clever ways or the joy she packed in her days and how she would tackle the things that scared her with determination and grace.

The idea of Donna’s art being worn by folks all over, walking through their days with a little piece of Donna’s creativity and imagination on them, helps that fear immensely.

It is another opportunity for Donna to sprinkle the world with something that brought her comfort and pleasure. Each of the four designs from Donna was created in a place that held great importance to her — her hospital, her playroom, her grandparents’, and her school. Donna would like that.

Please consider supporting St. Baldrick’s and Donna’s legacy through the Paper Clouds Apparel campaign. There are so many Good Things that will come from it.

If you are interested in learning more about Donna, you can read her story here.

Shirts and accessories featuring Donna’s art are available now through Sunday. Shop Paper Clouds Apparel to honor Donna’s legacy and support children’s cancer research.

Paper Clouds Apparel
Read more from parents of children with cancer:

• Chase’s Best Shot: One Boy’s Remarkable Triumph Over Pediatric Brain Cancer
• Keeping My Heart Full With Memories of Henry
• A Mother’s Love and a Head of Hair: The Best I Have to Offer
• Remembering Anna: Childhood Cancer Stole a Hundred Years