If You See a Purple Butterfly Sticker Near a Newborn, This Is What It Means
When Millie and Louis first learned that one of their unborn twins had anencephaly, their world collapsed into a kind of nightmare no parent ever imagines. They were forced to prepare for a birth and a death at the same time, a contradiction that left them feeling torn between joy for one child and heartbreaking anticipation for the other. Their daughter Skye lived only a few moments after she arrived, yet those moments shaped everything that followed. Her life was brief, but her presence changed the way her parents saw the world.
In the neonatal intensive care unit, the everyday rhythm of hospital life kept moving as usual. Nurses asked routine questions intended for comfort or clarity. Visitors spoke with kind curiosity. Even a simple remark such as, “So, is it only the one baby?” pierced Millie and Louis with a pain that words could not explain. The staff meant well. The hurt came from the fact that people simply did not know Skye existed. Without a way to communicate their loss, the couple faced a second layer of grief. It was the grief of feeling invisible in the middle of a crowd.
Millie and Louis decided that no other family should endure that hidden anguish. They created the Skye High Foundation, named for the daughter they loved and lost. Out of their sorrow grew an idea that could spare countless families a similar wound. They designed a small purple butterfly sticker that could be placed on cots, incubators, and hospital doors. Its purpose is both gentle and profound. It silently tells everyone who enters the room that a twin or triplet has died. It reminds staff and visitors that the baby they are admiring had a sibling whose life was painfully short. The symbol speaks without sound. It says, “One of these babies is missing.”
Behind each butterfly rests far more than a small piece of art. There are support groups that welcome grieving parents who feel unable to speak their loss aloud. There are late night messages shared between mothers and fathers who finally feel understood. There are families who discover, often for the first time, that someone recognizes the full story of their child’s arrival.
Millie and Louis cannot rewrite Skye’s brief life. They cannot change the circumstances that shattered their hearts. Yet through every purple butterfly placed in a hospital, their daughter’s name continues to be spoken. Families who once felt isolated discover they are not carrying their grief alone. A symbol small enough to fit in the palm of a hand now carries the weight of remembrance and compassion. It brings comfort to parents who stand beside an incubator with love in their arms and loss in their hearts.
Because of one tiny life, and one family’s courage to share their pain, another parent somewhere in the world feels just a little less alone.
