Some people experience something so painful that they never want to return to the place where it happened. Terry Berggren, a grandfather from Kansas, had every reason to feel that way. His oldest child was born prematurely, and years later, his family suffered the heartbreaking loss of a grandchild after an extended stay in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
But instead of allowing those experiences to keep him away, Terry made a different choice. He returned to help other families facing some of the most frightening moments of their lives.
Since May 2023, Terry has volunteered with the Warm Arms program at Overland Park Regional Medical Center, holding and comforting babies when their parents cannot be there. He's now comforted more than 550 infants.
Think about that. More than 550 babies who received something remarkably simple, yet incredibly important: the warmth and comfort of another human being.
And this isn't just a nice gesture. Medical professionals explain that gentle, nurturing contact can help premature babies regulate their vital signs, improve oxygen levels, and support healthy development. Terry isn't replacing their parents or the medical professionals caring for them. He's providing something additional that matters.
What makes this story especially meaningful isn't simply how many babies he's held. It's why he keeps showing up.
We live in a world where people are often judged by their income, accomplishments, job titles, or popularity. Yet here's a man quietly spending his time comforting babies who may never know his name. He's not looking for attention or recognition. He's doing something worthwhile because he knows it makes a difference.
His dedication earned him the 2026 Frist Humanitarian Award, but there's something even more interesting about his experience. Terry has explained that volunteering helps him, too. Spending time with the babies brings him peace and gives him an opportunity to slow down and focus on what matters.
And perhaps that's one of the most important lessons here. Helping others isn't always a one-way exchange. Sometimes the person offering comfort receives something meaningful in return.
Not everyone can volunteer in a hospital, and not everyone has the time or circumstances to do what Terry does. But kindness doesn't have to be extraordinary to matter. It might be checking on a neighbor, spending time with someone who's lonely, offering encouragement, or simply paying attention when someone needs to be heard.
We sometimes underestimate those little things because they don't seem significant enough. But to the person receiving them, they might mean everything.
Terry has comforted more than 550 babies, and that's remarkable. But the real lesson isn't that we need to help hundreds of people to make a difference.
It's that helping one person matters, too.
We cannot always prevent heartbreak or change what happened yesterday. But we can choose what we do with the compassion we still have today.
And sometimes, as Terry's story reminds us, that compassion finds its way into the smallest arms.
Source & Attribution: This Momentous Moments™ article offers original storytelling and Quiet Reflections™ based on reporting by Kayla Grant for People magazine (November 3, 2026), with additional reporting by Olivia Acree for KSHB 41 News. Momentous Moments™ did not conduct the original interviews.
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Momentous Moments™ — Moments That Matter. Stories Worth Remembering.
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