Luke’s Legacy Boxes bring holiday joy to Georgia NICU parents

Family donates gift boxes to parents with babies in NICU

A Coweta County family has made it an annual tradition to donate holiday gift boxes to moms and dads with babies at two neonatal intensive care units. The program is in memory of their son Luke who passed away when he was just five weeks old.

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. - A Coweta County family has made their annual tradition to donate holiday gift boxes to moms and dads with babies at two Neonatal Intensive Care Units in metro Atlanta. The program is in memory of their son Luke who passed away when he was just five weeks old.

FOX 5 was in the NICU at Fayette Piedmont Hospital at the bedside of little 39-week-old Athena. She was born prematurely at 29 weeks and has been in the neonatal intensive care unit for about ten weeks.

"It’s hard not to have your baby with you all the time. But we are getting through it," her mother, Taylor Tanksley, said.

She had just received a Luke’s Legacy Box, a holiday gift from the Haberman family of Senoia. They have their own story of neonatal intensive care, with their twin sons James and Luke. Luke was born with a heart defect.

"He was diagnosed with something called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which meant that the left side of his heart didn’t work at all. So, he had open-heart surgery when he was just a week old," Bernie Haberman, Luke’s mother, said.

"Came home, he went through open-heart surgery with flying colors. Our two oldest, Emily and Matthew, were able to know him and love him. Then suddenly he passed away on April 18, when he was just about 5-and-a-half weeks old."

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The Haberman family of Senoia deliver Luke’s Legacy boxes to children at the NICU at Fayette Piedmont Hospital on Dec. 18, 2023. (FOX 5)

In honor of Luke, for the past eight years the Habermans and their children, Emily, Matthew and James, deliver gift boxes to parents in the NICU of Piedmont Hospitals in Newnan and Fayette counties. Since 2016, over two hundred of these boxes.

"Our feeling is that he can’t make his own legacy, so it’s our job to make that legacy for him."

The Habermans collect the items all year, many are donated, and some come from previous recipients of a Luke’s Legacy Box.

Tanksley is hoping to be home with Athena soon, if not for Christmas, then the start of the New Year.

When that day comes, Athena will take home a little love from the Haberman family too.

To find out more about Luke’s Legacy Boxes visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/lukeslegacyboxes.