Working Through The Heartache: Mom Whose Baby Died At Hemet Daycare Launches Business, Blog

HEMET, CA – Just six weeks ago, Kristin Watkins received the kind of phone call that is the nightmare all parents fear. Her young daughter Addison had died while in the care of another, just an hour after she left her that morning for work. Addison was only 7 months old.

On March 27 at 8:06 a.m., Hemet police say the fire department was called to a residence in the 1200 block of Stepstone Court for an "unresponsive" infant. The child, Addison, was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to Lt. Eddie Pust.

The cause of Addison's death remains a mystery to this day. Police said she had "no obvious signs of trauma," and as of Tuesday, coroner's officials tell Patch the cause of death remained "pending" since the autopsy toxicology reports won't be in for another couple of weeks.

In the days and weeks since young Addison's death, her family has been doing what they can to work through the tremendous pain. Mom Kristin Watkins, dad Steven and brother Nolan only returned home this week, for the first time since the baby's death.

"The last several weeks, six to be exact, have been a blur," Kristin Watkins tells Patch. "Constant pain and heartache, non-stop tears and just flat-out horrible."

One way Watkins has been working through the heartache has been to create art and home decor, and she has since launched an Etsy page to sell her work. Among her creations are custom wood letters, painted with unique designs.

"I started to create these letters to keep myself busy, to get me out of the house, outside in the open air, painting and trying to be creative all while bringing in extra income to our household during this difficult time," she says.

Watkins hopes to make some additional money to be able to stay home longer with her son. She says she can customize any letter how a customer would like. You can learn more about her shop and check out her products here.

You can follow along with Watkins' story as she documents her journey in a blog-like fashion and draws awareness to daycare issues, on a new Facebook page she created, called Prayers for the Watkins.

A GoFundMe account, which was started for the family after Addison's death, remains active. To date, more than $20,000 has been raised.

Meanwhile, a police investigation continues into the death of the child. The facility where Kristin Watkins dropped off Addison was operating without a license, according to the Press Enterprise.

Images courtesy of Kristin Watkins