37-8 A woman who was resilient and full of love despite many misfortunes passed away due to illness. Ms. Stacey Herald (44 years old) was born with a rare genetic syndrome called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, which inhibits the growth of height, making her only 0.71m tall. very brittle and the lungs are not developed.

After marrying her 1.75m tall husband in 2004, Stacey was warned by doctors that if pregnant, the fetus would become too big for her body, and it would be easy to suffocate her heart and lungs. Despite that, she still wants to have a proper family, giving birth to 3 children in only 3 years. She was confirmed by the Guinness Book of Records as the shortest woman in the world to give birth.

With the disease that Stacey is carrying, up to 50% of it will be passed on to her children. However, out of the three children she gave birth to, only the oldest, Makaya, was normal and healthy, the other two were not so lucky, suffering from the exact same illness as her mother since birth. Its symptom is broken limbs when out of the womb, because the bones are too fragile to break.

Despite being small and sick, and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life, Stacey still loved and cared for her children with all her heart, thinking of ways to breastfeed, bathe and change diapers while in the wheelchair. She only finds it difficult to look after her baby at night, and can’t comfort Makaya when she cries because she has grown taller than her mother when she was only 2 years old. But luckily, what Stacey couldn’t do, her husband did everything.

After 14 years of living happily with her small family, Stacey took her last breath on July 31, 2018 due to illness. However, the mother of 3 must have felt extremely satisfied when she had a very meaningful and complete life.