Belleville family prepares Calissa Cares packages for NICU parents

BELLEVILLE, Wis. (WMTV) - A Belleville family turned grief to healing through helping others after their four month old daughter died due to a heart condition.

Calissa Finberg was born premature with only half of her heart developed. She spent her short life in the NICU in Madison and in Denver, Colorado for special treatment where she passed away on December 27, 2022.

Calissa’s mother Rebekah Finberg spent most of her time in the hospital and received care packages that made her more comfortable. Rebekah, her husband Curtis and their family wanted to provide the same care by bagging their own goodie bags for other parents of premature babies.

A Calissa Cares bag includes snacks, hand sanitizer, Advil and other toiletries.

”It’s emotional,” Rebekah said. ”There have been a lot of tears and also growth and I didn’t want to push it off because I felt like if I pushed it off it might not have happened. I was like, ‘I need to do this now or I’m going to get lost in my grief.’’'

Curtis said he is still grieving. He stayed in Belleville when Calissa was taken to Denver, CO in order to work and support the family financially. He was never able to hold his daughter.

”We want her life to matter and as parents we’re going to make sure of that for her even though she’s not with us,” Curtis said. ”My hope was that people would know her name. Here we are. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Rebekah, Curtis and their family will deliver 51 care packages to SSM Health St. Mary’s next Saturday.

The family encourages anyone with similar struggles to reach out to them for comfort via email at calissacares@gmail.com, 608-692-5355 or visit their Facebook page.

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