A week later, buyer returns it transformed

Anticipating the arrival of a new child usually brings unparalleled joy and excitement, setting the stage for countless cherished moments to come with the little one.

The journey of her pregnancy was smooth sailing from the start, but unexpectedly, the tides turned.

“I had this feeling throughout the week,” Watts reminisced. “The baby’s movements had diminished. My anxiety was through the roof.”

The life of baby Noah was tragically cut short before his birth due to complications with his umbilical cord.

Watts was engulfed in grief. The crib she had purchased for her son became both a symbol of her loss and a piece she wasn’t ready to leave behind, yet its presence at home was an unwelcome reminder of her sorrow.

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“She appeared conflicted,” Gerald Kumpula remembered. “It seemed she was reluctant to sell it yet there it was.”

A local with a workspace on the fringes of Cokato, Kumpula discovered the crib at the Watts’ family sale, expressing interest even though it wasn’t marked for sale.

“The moment he inquired about the crib, mentioning he repurposed them into benches, I found myself hesitating,” Watts confessed.

Kumpula was initially unaware of the heart-wrenching story tied to the crib.

“His wife was glancing over the clothes at my garage sale, inquiring about my son’s age because the crib seemed unused. I had to tell her about his passing in July,” Watts detailed.

Once Kumpula had repurposed the crib into a new form, he felt compelled to bring it back to the Watts family.

“I was overwhelmed with emotion in an instant,” Watts expressed.

The bench crafted from the crib now serves not only as a memento of the difficult period but also as an object of solace for the grieving parents.