Our Board.

I am a Learning Support ELA Teacher at an Swatara Middle School District. I have been teaching over 18 years in special education.  I am married to John, we have one beautiful daughter in heaven, Emma Grace, two sons, a daughter and two sweet puppies Benny and Nola here on Earth. I started the Queen B Project as a way to mother my daughter, Emma Grace. I started it to keep her memory alive and to keep me sane amidst my grief. I needed an outlet. I needed to help others in order to keep her light of her legacy shining. I needed to do something with the helplessness I felt. I have been very blessed with support from our family, friends and people reaching out, helping us in our time of need. All the love I received I felt the need to give it back. Early on in my grief journey I realized a lot great needs through the pregnancy and infant loss community. I realized how this subject is still, one that is silenced and not openly talked about. That everybody thinks it would never happen to them. It is isolating and no one, the parents, the friends, or family knows how to react. I realized that many hospitals and doctors aren’t doing all they can do for their patients to help them along on their healing journey.

I know how imperative resources and support are, how powerful , meaningful, and helpful it is to meet others who are going through the same tragedy. There are wonderful resources out there and great support groups. Precious memories and mementos are all I have of my precious baby girl. I want to make sure other parents have the same opportunities to create these memories and connections with their beautiful child/children. Our organization exists to help bereaved parents along their journey of grief and healing.

I am Tiffany’s sister and Emma Grace’s aunt and godmother.  I was so blessed to be there on July 22, 14 to have been able to spend time with our precious Emma.  I am here to work side by side with my sister and the entire Queen B Project team to help others in this grieving process, helping serve Pittsburgh and its surrounding areas.

My name is Abigail Zingone, and I am thrilled to be serving the Queen B Project as the Treasurer.  In October of 2012, my husband, Nick, and I learned we were expecting our first child.  All of our dreams were coming true; we had just bought a larger home and were busy making it exactly what we wanted it to be, and now we were welcoming our first child into our lives.  We spent the holidays sharing the news with our families and friends, and when the New Year came we busily prepared for our daughter’s arrival.  Lily loved to kick when she heard Daddy’s voice, and she spent her days surrounded by music in Mommy’s classroom.  My pregnancy was fairly textbook and was the most glorious time of my entire life.  On June 12, 2013, just nine days shy of my scheduled C-section (Lily was breach), we went to our routine 38-week prenatal appointment.  It was right away in the morning; I had felt Lily moving at around 4 AM but then not again once I woke up and ate breakfast.  I was not concerned, since I had felt her movements just four hours prior.  The nurse practitioner had a difficult time finding our daughter’s heartbeat with the doppler, went to get one of the doctors, and upon using the ultrasound machine, I could immediately see there was no movement from Lily’s heart.  I still did not believe our doctor when he said, “Guys, this is horrible.  Your baby has died.”  The next day, June 13, I delivered Lily Anna via C-section at the Harrisburg Hospital, under the care of the most compassionate doctor and staff I have ever met, and we finally got to hold the gorgeous daughter we had been loving and nurturing for so many months prior.  Lily’s grandparents, great-grandparents, and Uncle Paul were blessed to meet her that day, and she was baptized as a child of God by our pastor.  We were able to spend time with her and take pictures with her over the next three days, but time came for us to return home without Lily, which was, ironically enough, Nick’s first Father’s Day.  During our time in the hospital, Nick, who is the proudest Daddy I’ve ever seen, drew some of the most amazing sketches of Lily.  In the weeks following, we would learn that there was no determined cause of the death of our precious daughter. Throughout the summer of 2013, we created a lovely garden for Lily in our yard.  The physical labor as well as the beauty we created was just what we needed in our first days following Lily’s death.  As we continue to move along in our grief, we have formed Team Lily, which honors Lily by running or walking 5k’s to raise money to help bereaved parents.

My name is Shelley Snook. I reside in South Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. We have three boys and a girl ranging in age from 14 to 1. In April 2013 our youngest son Tobi was born. We had learned prior to his birth that he would only be with us a short time. Tobi made his entrance into the world 9 weeks early. Tobi’s time here on earth was brief but filled with love. After Tobi passed away additional testing was completed that revealed that he had the gene mutation for CHARGE Syndrome. CHARGE syndrome is a complex syndrome, involving extensive medical and physical difficulties that differ from child to child. Many children with CHARGE Syndrome are born with life-threatening birth defects that include difficulty swallowing, breathing, hearing loss, vision loss, heart defects, and more. Tobi had many of the CHARGE Syndrome characteristics. When Tobi was born our older boys were 10 and 5. It was important to us that the boys had the opportunity to meet their brother and create lasting memories. The memories they created would prove to be invaluable as we guided our boys through the uncharted territory of grief. There were many times as parents that we had to put our grief on hold to help our children grieve the loss of their brother. We quickly learned that support for children’s grief is difficult to find. Finding the support for the boys was an important part of our grief process as well. Just like adults, children continue to grieve. As the boys grow and mature they look back on the time when Tobi was born and they have new questions. We have found that supporting their grief as they mature and achieve milestones is just as important as it was when Tobi passed away. It is important that all children have the opportunity to grieve and feel supported in their grief. I am honored to be part of the Queen B Project and supporting children’s grief.

I know how imperative resources and support are, how powerful , meaningful, and helpful it is to meet others who are going through the same tragedy. There are wonderful resources out there and great support groups. Precious memories and mementos are all I have of my precious baby girl. I want to make sure other parents have the same opportunities to create these memories and connections with their beautiful child/children. Our organization exists to help bereaved parents along their journey of grief and healing.

I am honored to serve on Queen B’s board.  Queen B has been close to my heart since its conception.  Originally, it was simply because I cared deeply about John, Tiff, and Emma Grace.  Little did I realize at the time, that I would become a loss Mama, too.  My story started when I was just shy of 12 weeks pregnant.  I started bleeding while at work. Four days later, my water broke in the middle of the night.  Although I didn’t want to believe it, I knew that we were losing our baby.  The ultrasound the next morning confirmed that I was in fact miscarrying – the amniotic sac had collapsed around our baby. Doctors thought that I would pass our baby in the next day or two.  But, our little one hung in there for 2.5 weeks, with a strong heartbeat and was still growing, but with no hope of surviving.  Finally, at 14.5 weeks, and after many trips to the doctor for heartbeat checks/ultrasounds, we were told our baby did not have a heartbeat.  We were crushed, but relieved.

In our time of loss, being able to participate in Queen B events was very healing for us. I am so thankful that Queen B provides much needed resources to families when they are faced with the loss of their babies.  Most of all, I love that it encourages people to break the silence.  Since my miscarriage, I have found that talking about our experience and our little peanut has empowered me, and helped me heal.  Miscarriage and infant loss are real, and emotions are raw.  But no one should be afraid to talk about it. My husband, Mike and I live in Harrisburg with our fur-baby, Abe.  I am a 5th grade teacher in Lower Dauphin.  Mike and I are happily anticipating the arrival of our second little one in June 2017.

I know how imperative resources and support are, how powerful , meaningful, and helpful it is to meet others who are going through the same tragedy. There are wonderful resources out there and great support groups. Precious memories and mementos are all I have of my precious baby girl. I want to make sure other parents have the same opportunities to create these memories and connections with their beautiful child/children. Our organization exists to help bereaved parents along their journey of grief and healing.