A devastated widow has discovered that she is pregnant the day before her husband’s funeral, after a seven year struggle to conceive.
Kristy Kirchner shared her journey to motherhood with her husband through her humorous YouTube channel, ConceiveABaby, for twelve months.
She is now using the forum to find solace in her grief after her husband, Royce Kirchner, 35, was killed in a horrific car accident on October 8.
Mr Kirchner’s car flipped and slammed into a tree, just ten minutes away from their Mount Archer home in Central Queensland, killing him instantly.
It was just five days after Ms Kirchner had been implanted during their first cycle of IVF, after saving for three years to afford the expensive procedure.
‘I’m pregnant, but this is not how I was supposed to be telling this story,’ Ms Kirchner tearfully told her followers in a YouTube video.
Kristy Kirchner (pictured with her husband in orange dress) discovered she was pregnant the day before her husband’s funeral after he died in a tragic car accident. They had struggled to conceive for seven years
Ms Kirchner had documented her journey to motherhood on YouTube and Social Media. Since her husband’s horrific death, she is continuing to share her journey, including her intense grief, confusion, fears and joy
Ms Kirchner, pictured in one of her YouTube videos, finds comfort and support from her viewers during her heartbreaking video diaries which she posts on her YouTube account ‘ConceiveABaby’
Her YouTube videos now capture her raw grief and her conflict.
In a bittersweet moment, she announced her long awaited pregnancy just moments after telling viewers that her husband, who had appeared in many sweet moments during her YouTube series, had been killed.
‘For me, YouTube is just like a diary. Some people write in a diary but I talk to a camera,’ Ms Pacey explained.
‘I just find comfort in people helping me work through these feelings.’
At a time when Ms Kirchner admits she felt she had nothing to live for, her unborn child, who she has named ‘Pacey’, saved her life.
‘Right now this baby… My dream and Royce’s dream is my reason for living,’ said Ms Kirchner.
Kristy and Royce Kirchner were deeply in love after ten years together. They desperately wanted a child
During her eulogy for her beloved husband, Ms Kirchner revealed that she had just learnt that they were having a baby.
‘At the funeral I debated whether I was going to announce it in Royce’s eulogy,’ she told A Current Affair.
‘And it was really difficult but I decided to do that because Royce was right next to me in the casket. This was the last time I could announce to the world with my husband that we were pregnant.’
In yet another cruel twist of fate, the couple had cancelled Mr Kirchner life insurance policy just two weeks before he was killed. Ms Kirchner had quit work to concentrate IVF, at her husband’s insistence.
Ms Kirchner is struggling after the death of her husband of seven years, but a campaign to raise funds for the mother-to-be and her unborn child shows that she has incredible support.
In 22 days $16 thousand has been raised to help Kristy to pay off her IVF bills, funeral bills and the mortgage. In yet another cruel twist of fate, the couple had cancelled Mr Kirchner life insurance policy just two weeks before he was killed
The couple’s loved ones are raises funds through a website, to help Ms Kirchner pay funeral and IVF bills, to continue to pay off her mortgage and to start to build a life for herself and her child.
In 22 days, more than $16 thousand has been raised.
‘This. Is. Amazing! Thankyou so much everyone for raising such a huge amount to help ease the situation I have been faced with, and for caring for me enough to be so kind,’ she wrote.
‘I never expected such an overwhelming response.
‘(At best, I) hoped I might be able to get $200 for petrol and some groceries!’
Ms Kirchner is looking for work that she can do from home, to make sure that she can bring her child up in the house that her husband had planned to turn into their dream family cottage.
A Current Affair heard about her struggles, and has organised a full renovation to finally create Ms Kirchner’s dream home.
The new home will be twice the size of the current house, to Ms Kirchner’s disbelief and delight.
‘I will find a way because I want Pacey to feel his or her daddy’s presence and there is nowhere in this world stronger than the home he had such big dreams for.’
Despite her intense grief, Ms Kirchner makes sure she laughs, acts silly, and ‘feels beautiful’ to try and enjoy the pregnancy that she had longed for for years
‘A true romantic and a gentleman’: Kristy Kirchner pays tribute to her late husband, referring to him as ‘Pacey’s daddy’
She takes solace in her belief that her husband knew they were expecting a child.
‘I’m happy to report that even though I hadn’t taken a test to confirm pregnancy, he knew we were pregnant. He was kissing my belly, he was already saying ‘I love you both’, she confides in one of her videos.
Her grief is raw and heartbreaking to witness.
‘I just really miss his affection, he was so sweet to me.
‘It’s getting harder. I have noticed myself slipping from shock into heavy grief. The feelings are overwhelming, the pain is unbearable, and I feel so much for little Pacey who is so tiny and shouldn’t have to bear the brunt of such a horrible start to life,’ Ms Kirchner says candidly in one of her YouTube videos, five weeks after the death of her husband.
A photograph of the couple taken in Fiji. They were married for seven years before his death
‘For ten years I had the man of my dreams… You shouldn’t be able to take that away from someone, not like this.’
‘I feel like I’m missing out. I want to share your new experience with you: the other side.’
‘I see older couples together, full lives lived, grown children – why couldn’t we have that?’
‘I see younger couples with babies and young children – why weren’t we allowed to have that?’
Ms Kirchner is openly devastated after her husband’s shock death, but the online community is filling her with hope.
Thousands of strangers on the internet respond to her YouTube video with messages of love and hope, particularly when confided that she feared that she would lose her unborn child.
‘I was inconsolable, devastated, I just fell to pieces.
‘It was only through the word of encouragement and reassurance on the YouTube channel that made me feel like there was hope again.
‘That’s all I’m clinging onto at the moment.’
Ms Kirchner is determined to make sure her child knows all about their father, the man she loves dearly
–
Source: Mail Online