Emma Josephine Hart (2008)

HART, BALMER, LESTRANGE, HILLEBRAND

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart (email)
Date: 9/26/2008 at 11:01:19

Des Moines Register, Des Moines, Iowa
September 26, 2008

EMMA JOSEPHINE HART, Van Meter

Emma Josephine Hart, two month old daughter of Jamie and Brian Hart, passed peacefully in the arms of her parents in the Healing Garden at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, which was her first and only trip beyond the walls of the hospital.

In addition to her parents, Emma is survived by her grandparents, Rick and Paula Balmer of South Bend, IN; Susan L'Estrange of Adel; Steven W. Hart of Sioux Falls, SD; Great Grandfather Paul Hillebrand and great-grandmother Patricia Balmer of Mishawaka, IN; and a host of loving family and friends.

Emma fought every day of her almost eight week life. Born three weeks premature and suffering a significant heart defect, she had her good days and bad. Emma had an incredibly strong spirit, and her good days brought strength and hope to everyone who had contact with her. Eventually her fighting spirit wasn't enough and her body succumbed, despite the best efforts of all of her doctors and nurses. Her last breaths were not from a machine but of fresh air and in the fading light of an Iowa sunset; she smiled to her parents to let them know it would be alright.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, September 26 at Hamilton's on Westown Parkway, 3601 Westown Parkway, West Des Moines, IA. Funeral services will be at St. Patrick's of the Irish Settlement Catholic Church in rural Cumming, IA on Saturday, September 27 at 1 p.m.