One local woman’s gift of giving is bringing some holiday cheer to families forced to spend their holidays in the hospital. After losing two of her own four children to a rare terminal disease, Heather Earl decided to turn her own pain into joy by focusing on impacting the lives of others.
“I love to give. I feel it’s what has healed me from losing two children…doing for other people and stepping outside of my own pain to bring joy to others. It heals my heart,” Earl says.
Earl says that with the difficult memories the holidays can bring, changing people’s lives is what brings her comfort every fall. One of her babies passed away on Halloween, and the other passed away years later on Thanksgiving day.
“They wore pajamas, because they had a skin disease and so they had to wear really soft pajamas. They always had a stuffed animal on their bed and I read books to them,” she says.
Earl decided to collect those items that surrounded her two babies during their time in the hospital: pajamas, stuffed animals, and books. She started donating them to kids at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, the hospital her babies were at. Now, after recently moving to Lubbock, she is now sharing her mission with the local community and donating to Covenant Children’s Hospital. It’s what she calls Pajama Pages.
“It’s just been really exciting to see the good that it creates. I never imagined that it would ripple that far,” Earl says.
Her first year doing this, she only had enough to fill one wagon, but it’s been growing bigger and bigger each year. Last year she collected $10 thousand dollars worth of items.
“It’s fulfilled my heart just to do this, so now it’s just fun to go and bless more people, more kids, more families,” Earl says. “They’re so grateful to come get even just one book.”
Earl knows what they are going through and knows what it’s like to be in their shoes.
“It always makes me choke up, because I’ve lived that pain and to be able to brighten a moment of their life, because it could be really dark what they’re having to face and go through,” she adds.
It’s certainly something that Covenant Children’s Hospital is grateful for as well.
“We’ve never had a donation quite like this,” says Brittany Selph, with Covenant Children’s Hospital. “Pajamas, being something so simple, can mean so much to a family in the hospital. It’s just one of the great needs that we need here at Covenant Children’s.”
Selph says it’s one huge way to provide families some comfort during their time in the hospital, but to Earl, it’s also something that teaches her family the importance of giving and helping others.
“Pajama pages and other random acts of kindness, anything that is giving and serving others…it’s definitely put a stamp on our family that that’s the kind of family we are. We’re all givers,” Earl says.
“Giving is the right way to go, because this whole fall season…that’s the giving season,” says her son, Kolby Earl.
“Seeing the parents and seeing how happy they make my mom and to see that they can all relate, it’s really awesome, says Earl’s daughter, Hayley Nunez. “We’re definitely going to continue to do this as a family. It’s like a tradition now.”
Earl collected more than $10 thousand dollars worth of items this year for both the Dallas and Lubbock Children’s Hospitals combined, which makes it her biggest year yet. She says she’ll continue to donate to both hospitals in the future. She will donate to Children’s Medical Center of Dallas on Halloween, and donate to Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock on Thanksgiving. Earl is also currently working on turning Pajama Pages into a non-profit organization.
“You know, my message is more than just collecting now. I have a message of overcoming, a message of joy in the journey, and a message in finding peace no matter what you’ve been through,” she says.
