PEDIATRIC HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE FOR MICHIGAN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES

Transforming Pediatric End-of-Life Care in Michigan

Michigan families caring for children with life-limiting or life-threatening illnesses face limited access to specialized pediatric palliative and hospice care. Insurance and traditional healthcare systems do not always provide the practical, emotional, and family support these families need.

Too often, children spend their final days in hospitals when families would prefer a more comfortable, home-like setting surrounded by the people they love.

The Mitten Pediatric Palliative and Hospice Foundation is working to change that.

Today, we provide compassionate pediatric palliative and hospice support, care navigation, resources, and advocacy to children and families across Michigan. Tomorrow, we will bring Michigan's first dedicated residential pediatric hospice home to life—a place where children can receive expert end-of-life care in a warm, home-like environment and families can focus on what matters most: being together.

The Story Behind The Mitten: One Family’s Journey Changed Everything

Every great mission begins with a moment that changes everything.

For The Mitten Pediatric Palliative & Hospice Foundation, that moment happened more than a decade ago.

Heather Kluemper had spent the day caring for a beautiful 21-month-old little boy named Finegan in the comfort of his family's home. As a pediatric hospice nurse, she knew his time was drawing near. When her 12-hour shift came to an end, she prepared to leave.

Finegan's parents stopped her.

With unimaginable fear and heartbreak in their voices, they made one simple request:

"Please don't leave us."

In that moment, Heather faced a choice. She could leave because her shift was over, or she could stay—not because she was required to, but because one family needed someone to walk beside them through the most painful night of their lives.

She stayed.

Six hours later, as Finegan's exhausted parents rested for a brief moment, their son took his final breath in Heather's arms.

Afterward, Heather gently bathed him, removed every piece of medical equipment, dressed him in clean clothes, and made sure he looked like the peaceful little boy his parents wanted to remember. She gave them the precious gift of saying goodbye without tubes, machines, or clinical reminders surrounding them.

Then, while the family began grieving together, Heather quietly carried every piece of medical equipment out of the home so that, when they looked around, they would see memories of their son—not memories of his illness.

Only after everything was done did she walk outside, sit alone in her car, and allow herself to cry.

That night, on a napkin, she wrote two words:

The Mitten.

And she made herself a promise.

One day, no family would ever have to beg someone to stay.

One day, Michigan families would have a place where children with life-limiting illnesses could spend their final days surrounded by comfort, dignity, love, and expert pediatric hospice care—not because a nurse chose to volunteer her time, but because that level of compassionate support would simply exist.

That promise became The Mitten Pediatric Palliative & Hospice Foundation.

Today, we are working to build Michigan's first residential pediatric hospice home—a home where children from birth through age 21 and their families can receive compassionate, family-centered care during life's most difficult journey.

A place where parents can simply be parents.

Where siblings can make memories.

Where every child is treated with dignity.

Where families never have to face goodbye alone.

Because every child deserves comfort. Every family deserves unwavering support. And no one should ever have to say:

"Please don't leave us."

Our Work Today. Our Vision for Tomorrow.

Today, The Mitten provides comfort, resources, advocacy, and compassionate support to families navigating serious illness and pediatric end-of-life care.

We support families facing complex medical needs, including ventilator support and advanced life-sustaining technologies, while helping families navigate the healthcare system and connect with the resources they need.

Tomorrow, we will bring Michigan's first dedicated residential pediatric hospice home to life.

Through the care we provide today and the hospice home we are building for tomorrow, The Mitten is creating a new standard for pediatric end-of-life care in Michigan—one rooted in comfort, dignity, compassion, and love.

Every Child. Every Family. Every Journey.

Our vision is a Michigan where every child with a life-limiting illness has access to comfort, dignity, love, and specialized pediatric hospice and palliative care—and where no family has to face goodbye alone.

Together, we can transform pediatric end-of-life care in Michigan.

Support The Mitten

Big Hearts for Michigan's Littlest Hands