Foundation Fund Aims to Support Families After Loss of Children

After losing her 8-year-old daughter, Daisy, to a rare disease, Lolly Hader created Daisy’s Rainbow Cart.

Every Sunday, she brings toys, games, art projects, activities, and a moment of joy to the Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care units at Benefis.

“It’s easy to crawl into a deep, dark hole and live there,” Lolly said. "It’s a challenge to wake up and say, ‘How can I help others today?’”

Now Lolly has established a new Benefis Foundation fund, Daisy’s Rainbow Memorial Fund, which will help families with financial challenges that come with the loss of a child.

The fund will support Daisy’s Rainbow Cart and provide assistance for northcentral Montana families who go through a late-stage pregnancy loss or loss of a child to age 18.

“It's a small financial help, but it's something when you're going through such trauma,” Lolly said. “We want to be able to take off some financial strain so they can focus on getting through that day, the next day, and all the days after that.”

Daisy’s Rainbow Cart is only possible because of the generosity of donors, and Lolly said she's sure the community will find this a worthy cause, too. Contributions to the fund may be submitted online.

“People are very kind and generous, and it hits your heart a little differently when it's a child lost,” she said. “Montana as a whole, it's different than other places. We take care of our own and help in any way we can.”

In coping with her own loss, Lolly has met others in the community enduring the same situation.

“There's a handful of us in Great Falls who have lost a child, and it's the hardest thing ever. There are no words for it,”she said. “I will be forever grateful to the kindness people showed me during those times, and I look forward to showing kindness to others when they need rainbows the most, in their darkest times, all
while keeping Daisy’s memory alive.”

You can make the worst grief easier to bear with your support of the Daisy’s Rainbow Memorial Fund.