JAY – Chris and Lynelle Towers and their three children will be participating Sunday in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica. They’ll be part of the Towers’ team raising money to help the agency continue research into premature births.
The Towerses will be walking in memory of Isaac, their 10-month-old son who died March 11, and in celebration of their son Lucas and daughter Emma, who turn 1 on May 14.
The triplets were born about three months before their mother’s Aug. 13 due date. Lucas weighed 2 pounds, 3 ounces; Isaac weighed 1 pound, 15 ounces; and Emma, 1 pound, 14 ounces.
Isaac’s amniotic sac had ruptured about 11 weeks into her pregnancy and his lungs were never able to fully develop, Lynelle Towers said Tuesday.
Emma was so small, she said, her husband’s wedding ring fit around her leg.
While both Emma and Lucas came home, Isaac stayed in the hospital.
Chris Towers said Monday he knows that the efforts of the March of Dimes most likely helped his children and that’s another reason the family is walking: to help raise money for research and technology to continue to improve the survival rate of premature babies.
If the weather is good, the Towerses will be pushing a 70-pound stroller and about 75 pounds of children between Lucas, Emma and their 4-year-old daughter, Lilly Grace, on the 6-mile walk, Lynelle Towers said.
Neither parent is sure how this will work out, but they plan to have a relative following behind with a van just in case.
Chris Towers works part-time weekends at Hannaford, and Lynelle Towers is a multi-age teacher at Turner Primary School.
The couple made the choice for Chris to give up his full-time job and for the family to tighten their belts and pinch their pennies, Chris Towers said, to enable him to stay home during the week to care for the children.
The family is preparing for a memorial service for Isaac on May 14, the birthday of the triplets.
The couple think about Isaac all the time and are grateful they had him for 10 months, Chris Towers said, but they’re also very grateful to have three healthy children.
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