Arvo James MacLure was born on June 26, 2022 at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to loving parents Michael and Whitney MacLure. Arvo arrived early, at 22 weeks due to severe preeclampsia, and devastatingly, did not survive the traumatic, premature birth.
Despite Arvo’s unexpected early arrival, Michael and Whitney were able to hold him in their arms and make precious memories. Unfortunately, one thing they missed out on was reading to their beautiful child; something they dreamed of doing the moment they realized they were pregnant.
With this in mind, Arvo’s Library, funded by donations to the Arvo James MacLure Memorial Foundation Inc., came to life. This library will provide each family at the MGH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with a book to read together, in hopes of creating lasting memories, in honor of Arvo. When the idea of Arvo’s Library was presented to Dr. Sarah V. Bates, MGfC Neonatology Attending, she stated,
“Parenting and caregiving for a baby hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is an often overwhelming, daunting experience. The ability to support book-reading for our tiniest patients is an instrumental way to improve infant brain health. Exposing infants to voices through reading has a positive impact on language development and parent-infant interactions.”
We hope that all families at the MGH NICU will get the chance to create beautiful memories, promote effective bonding, and improve infant brain health through reading. It is also a hope of ours that somehow, some way, Arvo will be listening along with these babies to the stories being read by many loving families for years to come.
Arvo's Library
Creating lasting memories one book at a time.
