At his blog Journeys in Alterity, Kyle Cupp has posted this Eulogy to Vivian Marie Cupp. It’s a tribute to his infant daughter who died Sept. 24 only 15 hours after she was born, due to the congenital disorder of anencephaly that was diagnosed while she was in the womb.
The grieving father’s eulogy is a true love story, one that communicates how precious is the gift of every human life and every moment of each life no matter how short or long. And it’s a pro-life love story that serves as a testament on behalf of Kyle and his wife Genece’s decision to welcome Vivian into this world with all the love in their hearts, despite knowing that their daughter was fated to die so soon after her birth.
“Love has no time constraints,” Kyle writes. “That statement captures why we yearned with all our hearts to meet our daughter and why we are so very grateful for the heavenly fifteen hours of life with which she and we were graced.”
Kyle continues, “The common response to anencephaly is a procedure we wouldn’t have considered, and I think Genece would have slugged anyone who suggested it. Our reason for not taking that route, for instead choosing to experience the months of heartbreak and brokenness was very simple: Love has no time constraints. A few minutes, a few hours, a few days, no time but that lived in the womb? We would take what we were given. Love has no time constraints.”
His eulogy to Vivian — whose name literally means “full of life” — is a profound and heart-wrenching meditation about the power of love to transcend death, no matter what the circumstances. It concludes this way:
My wife and I are broken and will remain broken, but our hearts are, we hope, full of love, and we will hope and strive to keep our faith alive. Daily we will think of Vivian. Daily we will ask her to pray for us and to intercede for us. Our love for her and her love for us was not constrained by time, nor is it now, nor will it ever be. Our love knows no time constraints. Indeed, our love knows eternity, and because our love knows eternity, our love overcomes death.