73-Year-Old Has Cuddled NICU Babies Every Week for 8 Years
Dave Whitlow, 73, isn't a doctor or a nurse — but for eight years he's shown up twice a week to hold the tiniest, sickest babies in the NICU at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU. Every time he sets one down, he whispers the same three words: grow strong, grow smart, grow kind.
✓ Verified · cross-checked against 2 independent sources
Every Tuesday and Thursday for the past eight years, a 73-year-old retiree has walked into a neonatal intensive care unit in Richmond, Virginia, put on a gown and gloves, left his phone at the door, and picked up a baby who weighs less than a bag of sugar.
He's not a doctor. He's not a nurse. He's not even on the hospital payroll. He's a volunteer — and twice a week, that's exactly what the tiniest patients at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU need.
Premature babies in the NICU spend their earliest days surrounded by machines, wires, and the steady beep of monitors — necessary, but not exactly warm. Nurses do everything they can, but there are only so many hands, and only so many hours in a shift. That's the gap Dave Whitlow decided to fill.
As WTVR first reported, Whitlow spent more than 40 years as a local government manager before he retired. Eight years ago, he signed up to become a volunteer cuddler — someone whose entire job, twice a week, is to hold the hospital's smallest and sickest patients so they aren't alone. On a typical visit he holds five or six babies. On the busiest days, it's eight — some of them weighing under two pounds.
He doesn't take the role lightly. Before he touches a single baby, he checks in with the nurse on duty — what is this child receiving, what's the treatment, is there anything special he needs to know. Once he's holding one, his eyes go straight to the monitors, watching oxygen levels, watching for anything that needs adjusting. It's tender, but it's disciplined. "It's the best gig I've ever had," Whitlow said. "It just feels right."
Here's the detail that stays with you. Before he sets each baby back down, Whitlow leans in and whispers the same three words, every single time: grow strong, grow smart, grow kind.
He's a father of two and a grandfather of three, and by his own telling, he was scared to death the first time he did this — even though he'd already raised two children of his own. Eight years later, he says he can't imagine giving it up.
Because here's the bigger truth in Dave Whitlow's story: the most critical care in a hospital isn't only measured in medicine. Sometimes it's measured in someone showing up, twice a week, for eight years, with nothing to gain except the chance to make one small person feel less alone. That's not a job description. That's a decision one person keeps making, over and over, long after anyone would have blamed him for stopping.
Verified across two independent sources — full story at goodnewsdailytv.com.
What's one good thing that happened to you this week? Tell me in the comments.
Sources: wtvr.com · upworthy.com
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