“You can’t explain that feeling to anybody,” Gran said. Most babies are stillborn or die soon after birth. HPE, as it’s called, happens when the forebrain fails to develop during the first trimester of pregnancy. “He came in with this word, holoprosencephaly, on a 3X5 card,” Gran said. Over the course of eight hours, the newborn was evaluated by 12 specialists conducting numerous tests and scans. The family’s pediatrician hastily sent the couple 100 miles northeast to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. “But she struggled breathing, she could only breathe sitting up. “We just thought maybe it was what it was,” Gran said of the irregularities. The infant’s head seemed smaller than normal and her nose wasn’t quite right. On July 1, 1999, Sydney became the third daughter born to Eddie and his now former wife, Rosemary.īut instead of topping eight pounds like Bently and Darrin, Sydney weighed barely five pounds. It was a special time.” In this 2005 family photo, Eddie Gran holds daughter Lucy while Rosemary holds Sydney, who was born with HPE. “She was born there and that’s where she passed. “That little girl changed my life in Auburn,” Gran said, the fast-approaching date rekindling vivid memories from two decades ago. It will be his first trip back to Jordan-Hare Stadium since experiencing the most burdensome, most transformative and, ultimately, most joyous six years of his life. Her father would counter she not only lived life, she saved one.Įddie Gran, the 55-year-old offensive coordinator at Kentucky, returns to Auburn, Alabama, in late September as the 2020 college football season finally begins. They said that because her brain had never developed there was no real personality, no life to live as we understand it. Those who loved her know she spoke volumes through those big, beautiful eyes. She came within one month of her sixth birthday. They said she would live no longer than a few weeks.
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