Wife Passes Away Hours After Giving Birth, Then Husband’s Instinct Takes Over

“Matt Logelin and Liz Goodman both grew up in the Minnesota town of Minnetonka. Their lives would forever be linked after an impromptu meeting at a gas station that fueled the beginning of a fairytale love story.

Both Liz and Matt were high school seniors when she approached him and mispronounced his name. No matter though, the sparks instantly flew, and the two were inseparable after that, that is until it was time to go to college. As graduation rolled around, the picture-perfect high school sweethearts had to deal with the reality that they had enrolled in colleges in different parts of the country. Liz was going to study in California while Matt chose to stay closer to home at the University of Minnesota. The pair endured the distance, however, and maintained their connection by having a long-distance relationship.

After graduating, Matt went to complete his master’s degree at Loyola University in Chicago. He was then contemplating the prospect of pursuing a Ph.D. when he made another life-changing decision. After all those years apart, Matt couldn’t stand to be away from Liz any longer, and he decided that life would be best if he was with her. Therefore, in 2005, he packed up his belongings and moved halfway across the country to be with his beloved in Los Angeles.

From there, the two took life by the horns. With life and love seemingly on their side, Liz and Matt traveled the world. Seeing that the pair loved to explore the globe and make new memories together, it was only fitting that Matt got down on one knee and proposed to Liz in Nepal. On August 13th, 2005, Matt and Liz pledged their eternal love to one another and wed surrounded by friends and family.

The newlyweds were ecstatic to start the rest of their lives together, and things seemed to be going great professionally. The couple was making strides in California, with Matt as a project manager at Yahoo and Liz working as a financial executive at Disney. Personally, the Logelins were over the moon and had just taken the big step of buying a house together.

But the happy developments didn’t end there. Two years had passed since Liz and Matt Logelin had married, and the young couple was hoping to expand their little family. The pair was elated when in 2007, they discovered that Liz was pregnant with their first child. They couldn’t contain their excitement and were more than thrilled to share their joyous news with their near and dear.

The expectant couple excitedly prepared to welcome their little one into the world, but little did they know an earth-shaking turn of events was looming around the corner. Liz was having a difficult pregnancy, coping with severe morning sickness, and concerned doctors eventually ordered her to rest in bed for a few weeks. Meanwhile, Matt kept a watchful eye on his wife, who was usually very healthy and active. Liz, who typically enjoyed the outdoors and jogging, was then hospitalized for a couple more weeks of bed rest.

Matt continued to update the couple’s pregnancy blog, but never could have imagined the words he’d soon be writing. It was seven weeks before Liz’s due date, and suddenly she was rushed to the delivery room. Seeing that her pregnancy was classified as high risk, the doctors weren’t taking any chances. Twice Liz was wheeled into the delivery room, and both times the baby changed its mind. Finally, it was actually time for the baby to make its entrance into the world. However, the baby was nearly two months premature, and Liz had to undergo an emergency C-section operation.

On March 24, 2008, Matt and Liz Logelin’s lives changed forever. After a successful surgery, the pair welcomed daughter Madeleine (Maddie) Logelin into the world, weighing barely three pounds, 14 ounces. The new parents were overjoyed, and Liz saw their beautiful baby girl briefly, but since she was born premature, the hospital staff hurried her off to the neonatal intensive care unit.

Meanwhile, Matt took to the blog to announce the birth, “Madeleine is here!” he wrote excitedly. “The proud parents will continue to update everyone on our beautiful baby. Look forward to even better news.” But no one was expecting the news that would follow.

Liz couldn’t wait to hold her new daughter; however, doctors first ordered her 24 more hours of bed rest. Once that time had passed, nurses prepped Liz to see the baby, who was healthy and alert. She was placed in a wheelchair, as new mothers are, and wheeled to the ward. Matt, who’d always wanted to have children, was there, helping his wife as she took a practice walk around the room. It was a moment they had long been waiting for; finally, the three of them would be able to have some much-needed bonding time.

But then tragedy struck. Matt caringly helped Liz into the wheelchair when suddenly she uttered, “I feel light-headed,” and collapsed in his arms. The nurses tried to calm Matt down and tell him that it was common among mothers to faint after an exhausting experience of giving birth. However, Matt felt that something wasn’t right with his dear wife. Doctors and nurses started rushing around, and as things got even more frenetic, he was ushered out of the room, left alone.

The new father would wade in apprehension, fearing the worst. Suddenly, there’s this code blue, people rushing past me,” Matt painstakingly recalled. “All of a sudden, it hit me,” he tearfully told The Guardian in 2011, “She was going to die today here in this hospital, and she was never going to hold her baby.”

Only 27 hours after giving birth to Madeleine, doctors determined that a deadly blood clot had traveled to Liz’s lung and caused a rare, fatal pulmonary embolism that had tragically taken Liz’s life at just 30 years old. Devastated, Matt was left reeling. In just one day, Matt had gone from an ecstatic new father to a devastated widower. He had been expecting to fill the pregnancy blog with incredible pictures of a happy family, but instead, his next post was a heartbreaking one. Mere days before, Matt Logelin had written an elated birth announcement for Madeleine. Although words were hard to find, he now found himself penning a heart-wrenching obituary for the love of his life.

Five weeks ago, things were perfect,” he mournfully wrote in the blog entry entitled “Liz.” “On the same day, my world would fall apart.”

All of a sudden, Matt’s world was turned upside down. The 30-year-old simultaneously found himself to be a grief-stricken widower and an enamored new father. Additionally, he was floored by the thought of raising the newborn Maddie by himself. Although he was instantly smitten with the infant, he’d always imagined sharing the adventure of parenting alongside Liz. Left navigating the confusing onslaught of emotions, he had to cope with the despair of the untimely loss of his soulmate and the rapture of becoming a father.

In the haze of grief over losing his partner of the past 12 years, without warning, Matt Logelin went to the one place where he could find comfort. Taking Madeleine from the tearful nurses, he held his infant daughter for the first time with the devastating knowledge that his late wife had never and would never hold her.

The new father rushed to the hospital still in his suit to bottle-feed his infant, coping with grief and the reality of single fatherhood. Maddie was eventually released from the hospital.

Matt has recalled, “When I finally got to bring Madeleine home for the first time, I felt the house alive again.”

The first few weeks after Liz died had been agonizing for Matt. He couldn’t bring himself to remove her wedding ring from his pinky finger, and every Tuesday, when the clock struck 3:11 pm, he was transported back to the fateful moment when his life was turned upside down. At times, the unbearable weight of the world seemed too much. “It was hard to bear being at home with so many reminders of Liz surrounding me,” he said.

However, when he went out with Madeleine, he found himself comforting strangers who were overcome by his response to “Where the baby’s mother was?” “She passed away the day after the baby was born,” he’d say.

Despite his crippling grief, Matt was emboldened by the thought that his daughter needed him and that a part of his wife lived on in her. “The hardest thing about being myself after Liz died was just not having her around with me,” he said. “When she wasn’t here to share in the joys of having our brand new daughter with us.”

Overwhelmed by heartache, Matt knew he had to do his best to raise Maddie. Seeking a way to channel his intense feelings, he took to the internet. He started posting to an online parenting forum hosted by his hometown newspaper, the Minnesota Star Tribune. But that wasn’t all; he also refashioned his and Liz’s pregnancy blog into a personal parenting blog and found solace in the writing process.

The single father poured his heart out into the desperately needed outlet and soon something unexpected happened. His honest writing helped Matt fight off the urges to let the grief consume him and was able to find some relief as a single parent and widower. He also sought out the support of other parents who related to and could provide support during the trying time.

Matt was determined to devote his time and energy to making Maddie happy and healthy, and even if her mom couldn’t be there, he made sure Maddie knew all about her. “I have great memories of Liz, and I can tell her about all these things,” he said. But Maddie wasn’t the only one who would see it. “Some minutes, I’m extremely happy, and there are other minutes when I’m so down and I don’t know what to do. That’s what I try to convey through the blog,” he has said.

Before long, the blog transformed again into something broader that would have lasting effects in the small family. Matt thought the blog, which is now called “Matt, Liz, and Maddie: Life and Death All in a 27-Hour Period,” would be a meaningful virtual scrapbook for Madeleine when she grew up.

However, the forum also became a widespread internet phenomenon. Matt was receiving useful advice on how to deal with things like diaper rash and nasal aspirators. He had also created a place for other parents in similar situations to relate to one another. In addition, the forum was attracting tens of thousands of page views a day and about 1 million to 1.5 million visitors per month.

But where would it take Matt? The blog had produced something inspiring and incredible out of tragedy. It served as a cathartic outlet and also a place where the single father could get the type of advice from others that he had been desperately missing from Liz.

Although it hadn’t been his intention, the single father started to get more than well-wishes. Complete strangers were so touched by the story that they started to send in a variety of items to help ease the pressure of the situation and help a single dad focus on raising his child and dealing with his grief.

People sent in items he didn’t even know he needed. Along with the toys, stuffed animals, and baby clothes, Matt received diaper bags, formula dividers, baby nail clippers, and hair clips. After he wrote of his fear of not dressing Maddie the way Liz would have wanted, the Logelins soon received so many gifts that they filled the modest living room of their home. “I never imagined that people would care about us the way they do,” he said.

With the help of some of his avid readers, Matt eventually set up a charity organization in Liz’s name and did something incredible with it. Run by volunteers, the Liz Logelin Foundation organized fundraising events like 5K walks and runs in her memory. One event raised $4,400 that was intended to go to Matt and Maddie. However, Matt envisioned another way to honor his wife’s testament.

“Matt asked me if it was okay to give away all the money that had been raised to me and Madeleine to the widows and widowers he had met through his blog,” recalled the foundation’s co-executive, Rachel Engebretson. “They didn’t have the same network of support, and he wanted to help them,” part of the Liz Logelin Foundation’s activity includes the Celebration of Hope Gala, held on the weekend closest to Liz Logelin’s birthday on September 17th.

The gala features a number of auctions benefiting the foundation, as well as a traditional 5K walk/run held close to her home in Minnesota. The organization also holds an event called “5K Walk/Run Hope Around the World,” in which people are encouraged to buy race packets and walk/run in their own hometown. All the profits from the activity go directly to the Liz Logelin Foundation.

Such a heartfelt tribute, considering Liz herself was a runner. But the story doesn’t end there. As time passed, Matt Logalin was struck how much his daughter, Madeleine, resembled his late wife. He realized that his blogging had not only been vital for his survival but held a greater purpose.

In many ways, it’s a love letter to Madeleine and to Liz,” he said. “Liz will never read it, of course, but I want Madeleine to know that her dad didn’t just curl up in a ball and start drinking heavily. I want her to know I was out there doing as much as I could for her and trying to make her as happy as I could,” he told The Daily Mail.

Still, he didn’t intend to keep the blog active forever. Although Matt has undoubtedly encountered his fair share of hardship and pain, the unexpected path that life has taken him on certainly provided a valuable learning experience and example for others on how to pick yourself up from a tragedy and make the most of what seems to be like an impossible situation.

Matt has reflected that his late wife Liz used to be the more outgoing one, and he preferred to stay in the background. In light of everything, he has increasingly broken out of his shell as a guest speaker at multiple grief and widowhood summits and as a guest columnist for Glamour magazine.

And how is Maddie faring? Maddie Logalin turned 10 years old on March 24, 2018. That date also marked 10 years since the tragic passing of her mother, Liz. In spite of the tragic circumstances of her past, her father and extended family have done everything to surround her with love and happiness. Matt has made the details of his blog less intimate as Maddie has grown older. “The minute Madeleine says, ‘Stop that,’ the plug gets pulled,” he said. He also vowed, “Over the years, Maddie has grown to know her mother through stories and pictures, and has become all the more inquisitive.”

As Maddie has grown, Matt Logelin feared that growing up without a mother meant that there wasn’t enough female influence in her life. He addressed this issue in a heartfelt blog post following his daughter’s decision to cut her hair short.

After receiving negative feedback for his daughter’s boyish new hairstyle, Matt pointed out all the strong female role models in his daughter’s life and thanked her for being the kind of kid who challenges perceptions. He then expressed how he encourages his daughter to make her own decisions and to ignore outdated gender norms. His only concern, he wrote in this inspiring post, is his daughter’s happiness.

Having basically grown up with the foundation named after her mother, it only made sense that little Maddie got involved in its activities as soon as she got old enough. She attends all the organization’s events with her father and has participated in several charity events. Maddie’s also tried to help raise money for people in need outside the foundation’s usual activity. After hurricanes Harvey and Irma struck in 2017, the kind-hearted little girl started selling cookies to raise money for the survivors.

Among the Logelin’s many charitable activities, Matt also participated in a yearly weekend-long activity for widows and widowers named “Camp Widow.” Camp Widow is a program aimed to supply widowed people with much-needed tools and information, as well as support, to help them slowly get back on their feet.

In 2011, Matt became a presenter at the camp. He held a workshop for fellow widows and widowers in which he discussed the significance of revisiting places that were an important part of the couple’s lives, like when he came back to India with his daughter Maddie after Liz died.

An avid blogger and author, Matt Logelin isn’t afraid to voice his less-than-conventional opinions. One thing he objects to is Father’s Day. For him, Father’s Day was made up to sell greeting cards and ties and is hardly a big deal. Matt doesn’t have to wait until Father’s Day to spend quality time with his beloved little girl and to give her his full attention, like many other fathers do. For him, it’s an everyday thing.

After his breakup with ex-girlfriend Brooke Gullickson, Matt took some time alone, and things seemed to be quiet on the dating front. Not too long thereafter, however, rumors began to swirl about him dating Lizzie Molyneux, a writer for the animated series “Bob’s Burgers.” The rumors seemed to be confirmed when the two appeared together at a benefit comedy show for the Liz Logelin Foundation in the fall of 2016.

The couple wanted to keep quiet and deter gossip before announcing anything official. Nonetheless, inquisitive fans discovered something wonderful: Matt Logelin and Lizzie Molyneux had largely kept information about their relationship under wraps to protect their privacy and that of Maddie’s.

However, fans looking for more details on the couple happened to come across something outstanding. The fans discovered a wedding website for Matt Logelin and Lizzie Molyneux. As it turns out, the hush-hush pair secretly wed in a nuptial ceremony in Palm Springs, California, in February 2018.

And while Matt Logelin might prefer to be discreet on his private life these days, his chronicles about Maddie have caught the eye of one particular A-lister. The Lifetime network considered making a screen adaptation of Matt Logelin’s book “Two Kisses for Maddie: A Memoir of Loss and Love.” The plans to have writer Marta Kauffman at the forefront of the TV movie project, however, didn’t materialize. In 2016, words started to circulate that Channing Tatum was going to take on the bigger-budget Hollywood film adaptation of the book. The popular actor is slated to serve as an executive producer and might even star in the pending father-daughter drama.

That concludes the summary of Matt Logelin’s incredible journey, his devotion to raising Maddie, and the lasting impact he and Liz have had on others through their foundation and blog.