Her grandson was going to die without a liver.
And that’s why Rita Weeks sews doll clothes.
Why her house at Pine Lake is filled with fancy boxes lined with tissue paper and tied with tulle ribbons and pretty dolls with names like Ruby and Claire and Vanessa.
Why she works all year turning yards of material into stretchy doll leggings and pretty doll shirts. Scouring store aisles for accessories, doll cups and plates, sparkly things and tiny shoes and child-sized journals.
Why she writes a note and places it inside each box — how many so far? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds — and gives that box of doll clothes (and the doll that will wear those clothes) away to a child at Christmas.
The notes all say the same thing: Dear Parent, All of the doll clothing I sew is given in memory of Cassidy. Our grandson received her liver in 1999. Cassidy’s parents asked only that we always remember their daughter. Enjoy the sound of your child’s laughter ...
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Cassidy lived in California. Rita’s daughter, Emily Kent, lived in California, too, with her husband and two boys.
That July day when the call came, Emily cried all the way to the transplant center in San Francisco, more than two hours away.
Griffin had something called GSD-Type 4. His liver was not releasing glycogen into his system, poisoning his body. The disease affected all of his large muscle groups, including his heart.
The doctors didn’t know if a transplant would save him, but they knew he would soon die without one.
“No child (with GSD-Type 4) had ever lived with a transplant,†Emily says. “It was completely experimental.â€
Emily lives in Lincoln now, close to her parents, Rita and Don. Griffin is in college in California, a 20-year-old, trying to figure out what he wants to be.
And somewhere in a box of a young man’s childhood mementos is an album filled with photos of a little girl named Cassidy. A 16-month-old who was born with a weakened heart and contracted meningitis.
“The emergency room sent them home,†Emily says. “They said she had the flu.â€
By the time doctors figured out what was wrong, it was too late. The toddler’s parents donated her organs.
Griffin’s parents wrote a letter thanking them and the transplant center passed it on.
A few years later, Cassidy’s family reached out wanting to connect.
Emily remembers the father's message: “Always remember our daughter and enjoy your child’s laughter.â€
Griffin’s grandma started thinking of a way to fulfill his wish.
Rita had owned a craft store back when she and Don lived in Pennsylvania, but she closed it so she could “do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it.â€
She’s a strong woman, plain-spoken, practical, funny.
And she's always sewed.
She'd made doll clothes for her own nieces. After word got around, friends asked her to make doll clothes for their grandkids and it went from there — more friends with more grandkids, children who’d lost their houses in hurricanes.
And when Griffin got sick she began making clothes for premature babies.
The tiny clothes were just like doll clothes.
"I thought I'll sew them in memory of Cassidy."
She crochets, too, which is why those fancy boxes all have a cozy doll hat tucked in with all those clothes.
How many outfits in each box?
“Until it’s full,†Rita says.
She does all of the sewing. Friends and family help her buy the dolls — “American Girl knock-offs†— and find them homes in schools and shelters and hospitals.
“School teachers, social workers, scout leaders, stand-ins for Santa play a vital role with the selection of every child and every doll they deliver,†Rita wrote in a memory book she created.
The dolls have to be new. The boxes must be pretty and lined with tissue paper.
“Because, when I was a girl, I thought that’s what rich people had.â€
The first year, 10 boxes. The second year, a dozen.
This year’s boxes — 163 dolls and their wardrobes — are packed and delivered.
But Rita is in her basement sewing room all year long, stitching and collecting for the coming season.
Writing all those letters.
“Cassidy saved our grandson’s life,†she says. “But she also has had a huge impact on mine.â€
She calls Cassidy Clothes her legacy.
Her youngest grandchildren are still in grade school.
“There’s going to be a time when those kids say, ‘I know what Grandpa did, but what did Grandma do, besides cook?’â€
Her daughter has the answer.
That day in California, Cassidy’s parents made it clear that they wanted their daughter remembered, but they wanted something more, too.
“Part of it was to make little girls smile,†Emily says. “And that’s what Mom does.â€