Young patient turns hospital stay into gifts for children

When 11-year-old DeLayna Dubie left Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital after surgery earlier this year, she didn’t just return home to Gaylord.

She returned with a mission.

The northern Michigan girl had packed a knitting loom to help calm her nerves before having her tonsils removed. During her stay, she spent time at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Renucci House in Grand Rapids where she experienced the support available to families traveling for specialized medical care. Before heading home, she decided she wanted to become part of that support for other children.

Since then, DeLayna has hand-knitted more than 50 hats and small stuffed animals for newborns, pediatric cancer patients, and families staying at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital and Ronald McDonald House West Michigan.

“It just makes me feel happy that they’re doing something where they can be snuggly and cozy and feel cared about,” DeLayna says.

Her generosity stands out because it comes from someone who recently experienced the uncertainty of being a patient herself.

“One of the most meaningful things we see at Ronald McDonald House West Michigan is young people finding ways to give back,” says Salina Bishop, president and CEO of Ronald McDonald House West Michigan.

“DeLayna took something she learned through her own health journey and turned it into an opportunity to comfort other children and families. That kind of compassion can’t be taught. It comes from the heart. Every hat she creates carries a message that says, ‘You’re not alone,’ and that’s a gift far greater than the hat itself.”

Comforting gifts

DeLayna has been a patient at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital periodically since she was a young child, receiving care for ear infections that required multiple sets of ear tubes. Her tonsil surgery earlier this year was the first time she spent the night in the hospital.

She brought her knitting loom to help pass the time. After teaching herself to knit last Christmas, DeLayna originally planned to make hats simply because she enjoyed learning a new skill. But her hospital stay changed the purpose behind the hobby.

Before leaving Grand Rapids, DeLayna gave about 20 handmade hats to children at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. During a later visit, a volunteer at Ronald McDonald House West Michigan gave her a new idea. Children would also enjoy small stuffed animals. So DeLayna taught herself how to knit fish, jellyfish, octopuses, and penguins. Today, she keeps making more for children staying in Grand Rapids.

She typically spends between 1½ and 2½ hours making each hat and purchases the yarn and supplies herself.

DeLayna attends Michigan Connections Academy, a tuition-free online public school, after recurring illnesses forced her family to rethink her education. During second grade, she missed 33 days of school because of pneumonia, bronchitis, and scarlet fever before doctors determined severe animal allergies were making it difficult for her to attend a traditional classroom.

Today, she is healthy and thriving. This fall, she will begin sixth grade while taking seventh-grade math.

“Every year we ask if she wants to go back to a traditional school,” her mother, Darcie Fuzi, says. “Each time she says being at Connections gives her the opportunity to do all these different things, try new things and really make something out of it.”

The flexible schedule allows DeLayna to knit after school, during car rides and between travel softball, skeet shooting, violin lessons, and Bible studies.

She may never know which child receives one of her hats or stuffed animals. But that isn’t why she makes them. Rather, she wants the young patients to know “someone took the time to care and think about this.” 

Photos courtesy of Darcie Fuzi.