Lend a Hand to Kora's Legacy of Love

Kora Reace Ann Novy was born on April 4, 2024, defying the cruelest odds. She weighed seven pounds and four ounces. Following complications from a placental abruption, Kora died three days later on Sunday, April 7. If it’s correct to call it a fight, she put up the bravest battle her family has ever seen.

We nearly lost her mother, Stormy, but she survived. We cannot stop thinking about Kora's little fists and the far-too-brief time between meeting and losing her. She wasn’t born with all five senses, but she got to feel the vibration of her family’s voices, the comfort of a blanket that was all hers, and the warm breath of her devoted parents.

She got to smell flowers and soap and tears. She was never lonely. The sun never burned her eyes; she was never restless. If she dreamed, she only ever dreamed uninterrupted. She never went hungry or unwanted. She barely weighed eight pounds, and we will feel her loss forever.

Kora died, but she’s alive in the moments that drive her family forward on this whirlwind of a planet. Alongside her mother and father, Noah, we are carrying Kora in our own ways. She’s comfortable in arms that will never drop her. Some of the branches of a family tree might fall out of view over time, but they will always cast a shadow entangled to the rest.

This is a difficult story to share. Even now in our most vulnerable and painful chapter, we struggle to word this request for any help you can offer. Times seem insurmountably hard for so many of us. If all you can offer is a moment to think of Kora, please know that is a gift enough.

Your thoughts of her and any donations will help further Kora's two-fold legacy of love and kindness. Thank you for taking the time to read her story, and thank you so very much for any help you can lend two grieving parents. Half of this campaign will go to the ever-compassionate team at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at East Tennessee Children's Hospital.

Above all: Kora, we love you. Your grip on us is lifelong.