sunny skyz · 16 hours ago

This Grandpa Has Spent 8 Years Cuddling a Hospital's Tiniest Fighters Every Week

Eight years ago, Dave Whitlow walked into a neonatal intensive care unit and found what he calls "the best gig I've ever had" - holding premature and critically ill infants, some weighing less than two pounds, through the most uncertain hours of their lives. The 73-year-old volunteer cuddler arrives twice a week at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU, leaving his phone at the door so nothing pulls his attention from the tiny life against his chest. What looks like simple tenderness is also quietly disciplined: he consults nurses before each hold, watches the monitors, adjusts his position to improve oxygen levels. In a place where medicine does so much, Whitlow has spent eight years offering what medicine cannot - steady arms, a warm chest, and a whispered wish spoken to every child before they're laid back down. He came to give comfort and found, unexpectedly, that he had also found a family.