Laurel Taylor's 'Blankets for Brianna' touches lives

Laurel Taylor (third from left) and nurses from a Las Vegas hospital display some of the blankets made for newborns and the families of babies who don't survive at birth.

Editor's note: This article was also published in the March edition of the Menifee 24/7 newspaper. To read more stories like this, pick up a copy at local businesses or subscribe on our website.

Laurel Taylor knows that nothing can make up for the loss of a newborn child. She also knows from first-hand experience, however, that even a small token of love from another can provide comfort.

That’s why the Menifee resident, wife and mother of a 5-year-old daughter started a group called Blankets for Brianna, which has grown into a non-profit company that makes and presents thousands of blankets and beanies each year to the families of stillborn babies or those in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Through her commitment and organizational skills and with help from volunteers such as members of the Sun City Knit and Crochet Club, Blankets for Brianna gives a symbol of comfort to mothers and others in their time of need. For her efforts, Taylor has been selected to receive a Hometown Heroes award from Menifee 24/7.

The program is named for Taylor’s first daughter, who did not survive birth in 2012 due to complications. Taylor was given the beanie her daughter had worn, and it meant a lot to her.

“When I had Brianna, I slept with her beanie every day until my other daughter was born,” Taylor said. “The only reason I stopped was because I didn’t want my new daughter to wreck it.

“It brings so much comfort because it’s something they’ve touched. Even if the baby hasn’t touched it, hopefully it’s a comfort of some sort. And blankets, they are just a comforting thing.”

Joe Taylor, Laurel’s husband, was the one who nominated her for the Hometown Heroes award.

“That has been the hardest thing both of us has ever been through in our entire lives,” he said about the loss of Brianna. “Even with our daughter Sarah, it’s hard not to think that she would have an older sister but instead her sister in an Angel up in heaven.

“Sitting in the hospital for three days before we could be released was even harder. It gave us way too much time to just think. Obviously, I kept thinking how unfair it was that our first and only daughter was taken from us. But instead, my wife thought about what she could do to help with the pain for others that also have lost their child.”

Mary Dempsey, a member of the Sun City Knit and Crochet Club, said club members are always looking for groups that need donations. Her group provides homemade items to veterans’ groups, Michelle’s Place Breast Cancer Resource Center in Temecula, Children’s Hospital of Orange County and many others. When she discovered Blankets for Brianna, her group eagerly got to work making blankets and beanies.

“Our busy-ness keeps us out of trouble,” said Dempsey, whose group donated 1,066 items to Blankets for Brianna last year. “We’re willing and able to make something to benefit someone else, even if it’s someone we don’t know.”

Taylor said items are made “size appropriate”. If a mother has a miscarriage at 12 weeks, the group can make a blanket smaller than a wash cloth or a beanie to fit a head as small as an egg.

“It’s so you remember that baby forever,” she said. “Even if they put it in their closet and never look at it for 20 years, at least that’s something they know that they have."

If you know someone who is deserving of recognition as a Hometown Hero, email us at info@menifee247.com and tell us all about them.