Do you know someone who radiates happiness? Someone who is always smiling? Does that person make everyone else's day a little brighter? We want to share the stories of those people to spread a little more positivity. Every other Saturday, on WTHR Weekend Sunrise, we'll introduce you to a ray of sunshine. If someone's face pops into your head as a ray of sunshine in your life, please e-mail WTHR Weekend Sunrise Anchor Alyssa Raymond at alyssa.raymond@wthr.com. We'd love to share his or her sunny disposition with Central Indiana.
INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — Three months before her due date, Josie Sweigart came into this world. She was born on March 18, 2016, and she weighed one pound 14 ounces.
"She was doing good,” said Josie's mother, Patricia Sweigart. “She did need a breathing tube. She did good up until her two week point and that's when she got sick."
Josie's mother remembers every single little detail. Her room number...
Patricia added, “6218. 18 is a big number for her.”
The first time she held Josie, Patricia says Josie was just on her chest moving her little hand. Patricia also remembers the night Josie's life took a turn.
"The doctors said "one" is a dying baby and a "10" is a baby going home, and Josie was a two at that point,” said Patricia. “I think that's when it hit us that we might be losing her.”
One morning before returning to see Josie, Patricia received a call from the hospital. She says she just sat on the edge of the bed and started screaming for her husband Mark. Mark rushed them to the NICU at Community Hospital North. They watched as doctors worked to keep Josie alive. Josie’s heart stopped beating on April 5th.
Patricia added, "Once her heart stopped, it never beat on its own again.”
Eighteen days after Josie was born, Patricia and Mark asked why their baby had to die. They felt heartache and anger. They harbored doubts. Then, they discovered how a short 18 days can impact others for a lifetime.
“There's a reason she was here for 18 days,” said Patricia. “And that's what God wanted for her.”
In 2017, the Sweigart family started Josie's Impact. Patricia and Mark want people to pay it forward in memory of Josie, especially during the 18 days she was alive.
Mark added, "It's unbelievable how far it's gone in these two years."
Two years of Josie's Impact sees more than 4,000 acts of kindness. People left fresh flowers on cars, big tips on tables, coffee cards gas cards and sweet treats. These acts of kindness didn’t just pop up here in Indiana. They also spread out of state to Tennessee, Texas, Georgia, New York, Virginia, Florida and even Jamaica.
"She's reached more people than me or my husband could ever reach by ourselves,” said Patricia.
Mark added, “To make this world a better place however small of an impact that it really is ultimately. It's just amazing.”
Patricia and Mark believe Josie shines down from Heaven and casts rays of joy. They know she makes people smile and she protects her little brother, Gray Joseph.
“With gray I want him to be able to be happy and to know that Josie made a difference, and he can be a part of that,” said Patricia.
Patricia says it seems like the acts of kindness, in honor of Josie, touch the right people. A card describing Josie’s story found its way to a mother who also lost a child. This mother found it on her car after she visited her son’s grave earlier in the day.