Matthew Logelin - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Matthew Logelin is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

, blogger, and charity founder. In 2011, he published Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love, which was a New York Times best seller. His blog, Matt, Liz and Madeline: Life and Death, All in a 27-Hour Period, received over 40,000 hits per day at its height in 2008. The blog documents his grief and sudden single parenthood following the unexpected death of his wife, Liz Logelin, 27 hours after the birth of the couple's first child. Logelin established The Liz Logelin Foundation

The Liz Logelin Foundation

The Liz Logelin Foundation is a United States 501 3 nonprofit organization established to financially assist widows and widowers with young families, regardless of parental marital status or sexual orientation. The foundation offers no-strings attached financial grants to those individuals with...

in 2009, a non-profit organization providing financial grants to families with children who have lost a parent.

Background

Matt Logelin was born and raised in Minnetonka, Minnesota

Minnetonka, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 51,301 people, 21,393 households, and 14,097 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,893.0 persons per square mile . There were 22,228 housing units at an average density of 818.9 per square mile...

.

He met his late wife, Elizabeth 'Liz' Goodman, at an area gas station when they were both high school seniors. After high school, the two maintained a long-distance relationship while she attended Scripps College

Scripps College

Scripps College is a progressive liberal arts women's college in Claremont, California, United States. It is a member of the Claremont Colleges. Scripps ranks 3rd for the nation's best women's college, ahead of Barnard College, Mount Holyoke College, and Bryn Mawr College at 23rd on the list for...

in California, and he studied Sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

at St. John's University in their native Minnesota. After graduation, their long-distance dating continued as Logelin pursued a Master's degree at Loyola University Chicago

Loyola University Chicago

Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...

. In 2002, rather than continuing on to a PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

in the subject, Logelin opted to move to California to begin life with his high school sweetheart, whom he married on August 13, 2005. Two years later, the Logelins were thrilled to learn they were expecting their first child, but the pregnancy was difficult. His wife suffered from Hyperemesis gravidarum

Hyperemesis gravidarum

Hyperemesis gravidarum is a severe form of morning sickness, with "unrelenting, excessive pregnancy-related nausea and/or vomiting that prevents adequate intake of food and fluids." Hyperemesis is considered a rare complication of pregnancy but, because nausea and vomiting during pregnancy exist...

(severe morning sickness

Morning sickness

Morning sickness, also called nausea gravidarum, nausea, vomiting of pregnancy , or pregnancy sickness is a condition that affects more than half of all pregnant women. Related to increased oestrogen levels, a similar form of nausea is also seen in some women who use hormonal contraception or...

), and as a result, neither she nor the unborn baby were gaining the appropriate amount of weight. After an ultrasound assessment revealed additional problems, she was placed on bedrest. When 2 weeks of bedrest at home didn't make any difference, she was then admitted to the hospital.

Following 3 weeks of hospital bedrest, their daughter - Madeline Elizabeth Logelin - was born healthy, though 7 weeks premature, on March 24, 2008 via an emergency caesarean section. The next day, Matt Logelin helped his wife out of bed for the first time in 5 weeks, and over to a wheel chair to go see their daughter in the NICU for the first time. She suddenly told him she was feeling lightheaded, quickly collapsing in his arms. Despite attempts by hospital staff to revive her, she died of a pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...

on March 25, 2008, a mere 27 hours after the birth of their daughter.

Before his wife's death, Logelin spent many years working as a Project Manager for Yahoo!

Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...

, often traveling to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

as head of their outsourcing program. He quit his job in 2009 to write Two Kisses for Maddy, a memoir about his experience.

Matt, Liz, and Madeline: Life and Death, All in a 27 Hour Period

Logelin had begun a blog many years before his wife's death. At one time titled simply Matt Logelin.com, it was originally a place to document his photography as they traveled the world together, one of their great hobbies as a couple, as well as amusing experiences at his job. The blog later became a source of information for family and friends once his wife was admitted to the hospital for closer monitoring during her seventh month of pregnancy.

After her death, he kept blogging as an outlet for his grief and a way to document his journey as an unexpected single father to a premature infant. As news of his wife's death spread, Logelin found himself and his blog thrust into the national spotlight. His experience was profiled in People Magazine, on the daytime shows of Rachael Ray

Rachael Ray

Rachael Domenica Ray is an American television personality, businesswoman, celebrity chef and author. She hosts the syndicated talk and lifestyle program Rachael Ray and three Food Network series, 30 Minute Meals, Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels and $40 a Day...

and Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...

, and in Minneapolis and Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

-area newspapers.

The sudden influx of blog readers who had learned of the tragedy through these media outlets led to Logelin receiving 20-30 packages a day from total strangers. He received formula coupons, diapers, clothing and gifts for his daughter, as well as gift certificates, books, and even beer for himself. His blog comments filled with words of advice and encouragement, his blog building up to tens of thousands of page views per day as he detailed his life with his daughter and reminisced about the nearly 13 years he spent with his wife. "In many ways, it's a love letter to Madeline and to Liz," he said of the blog in 2009, which still receives 15,000 hits a day.

Two Kisses for Maddy

In 2009, Logelin left his job at Yahoo!

Yahoo!

and moved to India for two months with his daughter, where he began writing a memoir about his experience. India and its surrounding areas were a place of great significance for both he and his late wife - he had proposed in Kathmandu, Nepal, on the steps of a temple in Durbar Square

Durbar Square

Durbar Square is the generic name used to describe plazas opposite old royal palaces in Nepal. Before the Unification of Nepal, Nepal consisted of small kingdoms, and Durbar Squares are most prominent remnants of those old kingdoms in Nepal...

, and the two had traveled through India

India

together during one of his foreign work assignments, a year after they were married. It was during this trip that they visited the Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...

and, upon hearing the story of how the monument came to be built, his wife turned to him with tears in her eyes and declared, "You would never do something like this for me." The memory impacted Logelin so deeply that it prompted him to write his memoir. "Figuratively speaking, [the book] is my Taj Mahal to her," he explained in 2009. "I'm doing what I can to bring that legacy back for her." Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love details his courtship and marriage, as well as the moments surrounding his wife's death and the first year of his daughter's life without her mother. "Selfishly, I want her to know her mom through this," he has said.

The memoir was edited by Amanda Englander of Grand Central Publishing, and published by GCP in April 2011 reaching #24 on the New York Times Best Seller List and #11 on the eBook list. An audio book read by Logelin was released as well.

Following its publication, Logelin was asked to appear as the keynote speaker for the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland, as well as the Vascular Disease Foundation's annual meeting. He spoke on a panel with such writers as Dan Fante and Emma Forrest at the 2011 West Hollywood Book Fair, as well as at his late wife's alma mater, Scripps College

Scripps College

, during a nationwide book tour. He has written an original article for the Huffington Post and has received extensive media coverage since publication, including appearing on Fox and Friends, BBC Outlook, Minneapolis' Kare 11, multiple radio shows, and in Los Angeles Magazine.

Logelin has speculated on plans to write a second book, as well as on a possible screen adaptation of his first book, but nothing has been officially announced.

The Liz Logelin Foundation

In 2009, a group of early blog readers planned a 5K Walk/Runner in honor of Logelin's late wife, who was a runner. The event brought in over $4,000, and while it was intended to go to Logelin and his daughter, he instead donated the money to other widowed families he had met through his blog. This inspired him to establish The Liz Logelin Foundation

The Liz Logelin Foundation

, in honor of his wife. As of 2010, the foundation had given out $20,000 to grieving families and has been featured on numerous media outlets.

Each year, on the weekend closest to Liz Logelin's birthday, the foundation holds a Celebration of Hope gala, with live and silent auctions, and a Walk, Run, Hope 5K, to benefit the organization.

Matt Logelin donates a portion of his book sales - 7%, his late wife's lucky number - to the foundation.

Additional

Matt Logelin has worked extensively with people who have lost a partner. In 2011, he was one of the presenters at Camp Widow, a weekend learning retreat for those who have lost a spouse, leading a workshop on revisiting places that held significance in the relationship, just as he had experienced during his short-term move to India. He also spoke to the National Conference on Widowhood in 2009., as well as appeared on Voice of America's Healing the Grieving Heart radio show and has guest-posted not only as a widower, but as a single parent, on a variety of blogs, including Glamour Magazine

Glamour magazine

Glamour magazine means:* Glamour magazine, a U.S. publication aimed at a predominantly female readership* a girlie magazine aimed at a male readership featuring photographs of women...

.

As Logelin lost his wife so shortly after childbirth, he is also frequently cited in news stories regarding the rising national maternal mortality rate, and has been interviewed by Amnesty International, in hopes of raising awareness of postpartum complications.

External links

Matt, Liz, and Madeline http://www.mattlogelin.com/
The Liz Logelin Foundation http://www.thelizlogelinfoundation.org
Two Kisses for Maddy http://www.twokissesformaddy.com

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.