One week after Thanksgiving in 2018, Genell Williams of Davenport, Iowa gave birth to her baby boy Jordan at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Jordan was born with under developed lungs and was transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to help assist with his breathing. Everything happened so fast for Genell she was at a loss, “I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was so scared and all I was thinking about was my baby. Then after Jordan got settled in the NICU everything hit me at once and I thought, where am I going to stay while he is receiving care at the hospital?”
A couple of days after giving birth, Genell checked into the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois (RMHC-EIWI) and it immediately uplifted her spirits, “The Ronald McDonald House gave me faith and hope on the darkest days. I had a place I could call home.” Each day Genell took an early morning shuttle ride over to the hospital to see her baby Jordan. Little things like that meant the world to her, “Throughout the entire day I had access to a free shuttle service to the hospital thanks to RMHC. Some days I had to make multiple trips back and forth to the House so it was comforting to know the House staff was always there to support me.”
Genell loved everything provided by RMHC-EIWI, but her favorite part of her stay was making friends with other families at the House. “Without the House, I would have been going through all of this alone. The friends that I met during my stay were there for me and I will always remember that.”