HAYDEN — Baby Fallon Clary lived nine days before she passed away, but through her family, her legacy lives on.

Erica and Will Clary started the nonprofit, Fallon’s Flight, in her memory less than a year after Fallon’s passing and have used her birthday to add to neonatal intensive care unit supplies to help other families. 

“We've gone through more than a decade of infertility and pregnancy loss,” Erica said. “I’ve been pregnant nine times. Fallon was our seventh pregnancy and our only child born living. Everyone that met her just fell in love with her even being early, she was very impactful. I knew she needed more done with her life.” 

On March 26, 2023, Erica said that Fallon’s Flight began stocking care carts at the NICU ward in memory of Fallon at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane on the anniversary of Fallon’s birthday. They did the same March 26 this year at Kootenai Health.

“She had a congenital heart defect that we found out about where the left side of her heart didn’t develop properly, so we knew she would be in the NICU and have to go through open heart surgery just days after she was born,” Erica said. “Unexpectedly, I went into labor early at 35 weeks, so we weren’t prepared to be in the NICU even though we knew we were going to have to stay there.” 

Items in the Fallon’s Flight NICU care cart include electrolytes, mouthwash, hair ties and pre-washed baby swaddles, journals, pens, notebooks, footprint pads, blankets, sleep sacks and pacifier holders. 

Sacred Heart Medical Center has an average of 56 babies a day in its NICU and at Kootenai Health there are about 10 babies a day in the NICU. 

Kootenai Health Director of Women's and Children's Services Anna Tessendorf-Vollink said that the carts are “meaningful and considerate” for families staying with their newborn babies during a medical crisis.  

“The cart helps to provide some comfort and a personal touch to their stay,” Tessendorf-Vollink said.  

Families having gone through tough experiences at the NICU wards have passed along words of thanks through staff and directly to the Clarys.  

“You can tell it was created by a mom who had been through the experience and knows firsthand,” Tessendorf-Vollink said.  

Give families some way to ground themselves in normal self-care during a crisis can make a huge difference in showing up in a medical crisis, Erica said. 

The journals in the care carts offer a way for NICU parents to process their emotions through diary entries, track health information for their infants and write down questions to ask the doctor. 

“When you’re in the NICU, you don’t really know what’s up or what’s down. Taking care of yourself isn’t really on your mind,” Erica said. 

Fallon’s Flight also shares memorial recognition for more than 170 families worldwide who have lost a baby.

Erica said the recognition has spread to families in 11 different countries to help others process their grief through connection by sharing the love for “angel babies” like Fallon. 

“In those nine days, she shared so much love,” Erica said. 

Learn how to support Fallon's Flight at fallonsflight.org/

    Prewashed baby items through local nonprofit Fallon's Flight are available at NICU wards at Kootenai Health and Sacred Heart Medical Center.  

    Hats and handmade stuffed animals are given to families with newborns in the NICU at Kootenai Health and Sacred Heart in Spokane through local nonprofit, Fallon's Flight.
  

    Erica Clary reads a note from a family who sent a thank-you card to her nonprofit, Fallon's Flight, for sharing baby items and self-care items for parents in local NICU wards.