INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Franciscan Health held a reunion carnival for its NICU’s 50th anniversary on Saturday afternoon. 

24-year NICU nurse veteran Christine Copes visited with the Fox family, who have two children Copes has cared for. 

6-year-old Raven was born at the hospital at just over 32 weeks. She spent 56 days in the hospital fighting for her life. Her mom, Savanna Fox, says she is forever grateful to the nursing staff that supported their small family during that season. 

Just feet from the building she was born inside, Copes played carnival games Saturday with Raven. 

“Six years old, doing great, doing all the things she’s supposed to, it’s amazing,” Copes said. “It really hits you.” 

When Raven’s youngest brother, Drake, was born just 12 weeks ago, Copes cared for him. 

“When you can’t hold your own child, they can,” Fox said. “They help you and tell you what you’re allowed to do. It’s just an amazing bond that you have with them. To this day, for forever, you’ll have that, and they become a mom to you and your child.”

Fox and the two nurses who cared for both Raven and Drake, including Copes, have remained in touch. Fox considers them family. 

“Having the past relationship where they knew Raven and they knew our story and everything I had gone through with that, and then seeing me go through it again,” Fox said. “I felt like I could share and bear the world with them, and walking out of that I was more of a whole person than I would have been without them.”

That story wasn’t unique at the carnival as nurses reunited with babies they held when they were minutes old. 

Now retired head nurse Cindy Smith has been at every NICU reunion the unit has hosted. 

“I just had a 43-year-old come up, and he said, ‘you took care of me and my son’ and I said, ‘yes I did and I remember you,’” Smith said. 

For both Smith and Copes, it’s reunions like Saturday’s that remind them why their jobs are important. 

“It’s just an amazing feeling, just to see them grow up,” Copes said.