Matthew Logelin

Last updated
Matthew Logelin addresses the crowd at an event for The Liz Logelin Foundation in 2009. Matt Logelin.jpg
Matthew Logelin addresses the crowd at an event for The Liz Logelin Foundation in 2009.

Matthew Logelin is an American author, blogger, public speaker, and charity founder. In 2011, he published Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love, which was a New York Times Best Seller. [1] His blog, Matt, Liz and Madeline: Life and Death, All in a 27-Hour Period, received over 40,000 hits per day at its height in 2008. [2] Both the blog and the memoir document his grief and sudden single parenthood following the unexpected death of his wife, Liz Logelin, 27 hours after the birth of the couple's first child. A screen adaptation of the memoir starring Kevin Hart and presented by the Obamas premiered on Netflix in 2021. [3] In 2009, Logelin established The Liz Logelin Foundation, a non-profit organization providing financial grants to families with children who have lost a parent. [4] In 2018, he was featured on an episode of the podcast Reply All, where the hosts attempted to help him take down viral ads featuring misrepresentations about his and his wife's story. [5]

Contents

Background

Matt Logelin was born to Sara and Tom Logelin and raised in Minnetonka, Minnesota. He has three younger brothers. [6]

He and Elizabeth 'Liz' Goodman met at an area gas station when both were high school seniors. After high school, the two maintained a long-distance relationship while she attended Scripps College in California, and he studied Sociology at St. John's University in their native Minnesota. After graduation, their long-distance dating continued as Logelin pursued a master's degree at Loyola University Chicago. In 2002, rather than continuing on to a PhD in the subject, Logelin opted to move to California to begin life with his high school sweetheart, whom he married on August 13, 2005. Two years later, the Logelins were thrilled to learn they were expecting their first child, [6] but the pregnancy was difficult, and Liz was admitted to the hospital for bed rest. [6]

Following 3 weeks of hospital bedrest, Liz gave birth to a daughter – Madeline Elizabeth Logelin – on March 24, 2008, via an emergency caesarean section. The baby was born healthy although 7 weeks premature. The following afternoon, Liz died suddenly and unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism. [6]

Before his wife's death, Logelin spent many years working as a Project Manager for Yahoo!, often traveling to India as head of their outsourcing program. He quit his job in 2009 to write Two Kisses for Maddy, a memoir about his experience. [7]

Matt, Liz, and Madeline: Life and Death, All in a 27 Hour Period

Logelin had begun a blog many years before his wife's death. At one time titled simply Matt Logelin.com, it was originally a place to document his photography as they traveled the world together, one of their great hobbies as a couple, as well as amusing experiences at his job. The blog later became a source of information for family and friends once his wife was admitted to the hospital for closer monitoring during her seventh month of pregnancy. [8]

After her death, he kept blogging as an outlet for his grief and a way to document his journey as an unexpected single father to a premature infant. As news of his wife's death spread, Logelin found himself and his blog thrust into the national spotlight. His experience was profiled in People Magazine , on the daytime shows of Rachael Ray and Oprah Winfrey, and in Minneapolis and Los Angeles-area newspapers. [9] [10]

The sudden influx of blog readers who had learned of the tragedy through these media outlets led to Logelin receiving 20-30 packages a day from total strangers. He received formula coupons, diapers, clothing and gifts for his daughter, as well as gift certificates, books, and even beer for himself. His blog comments filled with words of advice and encouragement, his blog building up to tens of thousands of page views per day as he detailed his life with his daughter and reminisced about the nearly 13 years he spent with his wife. "In many ways, it's a love letter to Madeline and to Liz," he said of the blog in 2009, which still receives 15,000 hits a day. [11]

Two Kisses for Maddy

In 2009, Logelin left his job at Yahoo! and moved to India for two months with his daughter, where he began writing a memoir about his experience. India and its surrounding areas were a place of great significance for both him and his late wife – he had proposed in Kathmandu, Nepal, on the steps of a temple in Durbar Square, and the two had traveled through India together during one of his foreign work assignments, a year after they were married. It was during that trip that they visited the Taj Mahal and, upon hearing the story of how the monument came to be built, his wife turned to him with tears in her eyes and declared, "You would never do something like this for me." The memory impacted Logelin so deeply that it prompted him to write his memoir. "Figuratively speaking, [the book] is my Taj Mahal to her," he explained in 2009. "I'm doing what I can to bring that legacy back for her." [12] Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love details his courtship and marriage, as well as the moments surrounding his wife's death and the first year of his daughter's life without her mother. "Selfishly, I want her to know her mom through this," he has said. [13]

The memoir was edited by Amanda Englander of Grand Central Publishing, and published by GCP in April 2011, reaching #24 on the New York Times Best Seller list and #11 on the eBook list. [14] An audio book read by Logelin was released as well. In April 2012, a paperback version with an added chapter, additional photographs, and a reading group guide was made available.

Following its publication, Logelin was asked to appear as the keynote speaker for the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland, [15] as well as the Vascular Disease Foundation's annual meeting. [16] He spoke on a panel with such writers as Dan Fante and Emma Forrest at the 2011 West Hollywood Book Fair, [17] as well as at his late wife's alma mater, Scripps College, [18] during a nationwide book tour. He has written an original article for the Huffington Post [19] and has received extensive media coverage since publication, including appearing on Fox and Friends, BBC Outlook, Minneapolis' Kare 11, multiple radio shows, and in Los Angeles Magazine . [20]

The book was adapted into the film Fatherhood starring Kevin Hart as a version of Matt. The film premiered on Netflix [3] on June 18, 2021.

The Liz Logelin Foundation

In 2009, a group of early blog readers planned a 5K Walk/Run in honor of Logelin's late wife, who was a runner. The event brought in over $4,000, and while it was intended to go to Logelin and his daughter, he instead donated the money to other widowed families he had met through his blog. This inspired him to establish The Liz Logelin Foundation, in honor of his wife. As of 2010, the foundation had given out $20,000 to grieving families and has been featured on numerous media outlets, including CBS This Morning . [21]

Each year, on the weekend closest to Liz Logelin's birthday, the foundation holds a Celebration of Hope gala, with live and silent auctions. A Walk, Run, Hope 5K, to benefit the organization, is also held annually. [22]

Matt Logelin donates a portion of his book sales – 7%, his late wife's lucky number – to the foundation.

Work with widowed individuals

Matt Logelin has worked extensively with people who have lost a partner. In 2011, he was one of the presenters at Camp Widow, a weekend learning retreat for those who have lost a spouse, leading a workshop on revisiting places that held significance in the relationship, just as he had experienced during his short-term move to India. He also spoke to the National Conference on Widowhood in 2009, [23] as well as appeared on Voice of America's Healing the Grieving Heart radio show. [24] He has guest-posted not only as a widower, but as a single parent, on a variety of blogs, including Glamour Magazine. [25]

As Logelin lost his wife so shortly after childbirth, he is also frequently cited in news stories regarding the rising national maternal mortality rate, and has been interviewed by Amnesty International, in hopes of raising awareness of postpartum complications. [26] [27]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Its All Relative</i> American television sitcom (2003–2004)

It's All Relative is an American sitcom that aired on ABC from October 1, 2003, until April 20, 2004. The series is about two families in Boston – one lower-class Irish Catholic and the other an upper-class WASP household headed by a gay couple – who are reluctantly joined together when their kids get engaged.

An autobiographical comic is an autobiography in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comix movement and has since become more widespread. It is currently most popular in Canadian, American and French comics; all artists listed below are from the U.S. unless otherwise specified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamela Wyndham</span> British writer and aristocrat

Pamela Adelaide Genevieve Grey, Viscountess Grey of Fallodon, was an English writer. The wife of Edward Tennant, 1st Baron Glenconner, and later of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, she is one of the Wyndham Sisters painted by John Singer Sargent, who were at the centre of the cultural and political life of their time. Like their parents, they were part of The Souls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leland Palmer</span> Fictional character

Leland Palmer is a fictional character from the television series Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. He also appears in the prequel, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. He is portrayed in all his appearances by Ray Wise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea Handler</span> American comedian, actress, writer, and producer (born 1975)

Chelsea Joy Handler is an American stand-up comedian, actress, writer, television host, and producer. She hosted the late-night talk show Chelsea Lately on the E! network from 2007 to 2014 and released a documentary series, Chelsea Does, on Netflix in January 2016. From 2016 to 2017, Handler hosted the talk show Chelsea on Netflix.

Yvonne Zima is an American actress. She is known for her role as Daisy Carter on The Young and the Restless.

<i>One Day</i> (novel) 2009 novel by David Nicholls

One Day is a novel by David Nicholls, published in 2009. A couple spend the night together on 15 July 1988, knowing they must go their separate ways the next day. The novel then visits their lives on 15 July every year for the next 20 years. The novel attracted generally positive reviews and was named 2010 Galaxy Book of the Year. Nicholls adapted his book into a screenplay; the feature film, was released in August 2011, and a television series for Netflix, premiered on 8 February 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Krouse Rosenthal</span> American author, radio host, and filmmaker (1965–2017)

Amy Krouse Rosenthal was an American author of both adult and children's books, a short film maker, and radio show host. She is best known for her memoir Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, her children's picture books, and the film project The Beckoning of Lovely. She was a prolific writer, publishing more than 30 children's books between 2005 and her death in 2017. She is the only author to have three children's books make the Best Children's Books for Family Literacy list in the same year. She was a contributor to Chicago's NPR affiliate WBEZ, and to the TED conference.

The Liz Logelin Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established to financially assist widows and widowers with young families, regardless of parental marital status or sexual orientation. The foundation offers no-strings attached financial grants to those individuals with dependent children who have lost a parent, as well as resources for the newly bereaved. The Liz Logelin Foundation's namesake is Elizabeth 'Liz' (Goodman) Logelin, who died one day after giving birth in 2008. The organization was established in her honor by her husband, Matthew Logelin, to help other grieving families. As of 2011, the foundation has provided grants to over 70 families, reaching over 150 children.

<i>The Song of Achilles</i> 2011 novel by Madeline Miller

The Song of Achilles is a 2011 novel by American writer Madeline Miller. Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is a retelling of the Trojan War as told from the perspective of Patroclus. The novel follows Patroclus' relationship with Achilles, from their initial meeting to their exploits during the Trojan War, with focus on their romantic relationship. In 2012, The Song of Achilles was awarded the Orange Prize for Fiction.

Episode 14 (<i>Twin Peaks</i>) 7th episode of the 2nd season of Twin Peaks

"Episode 14", also known as "Lonely Souls", is the seventh episode of the second season of the American mystery television series Twin Peaks. The episode was written by series co-creator Mark Frost and directed by series co-creator David Lynch. It features series regulars Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Ray Wise and Richard Beymer; and guest stars Frank Silva (uncredited) as Killer BOB, Hank Worden as The Waiter, Julee Cruise as Singer, and David Lynch as Gordon Cole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maddy Thorson</span> Canadian video game developer

Madeline Stephanie Thorson is a Canadian video game developer, known as one of the lead creators for the video games TowerFall and Celeste, developed under the studio Maddy Makes Games. Since September 2019, Thorson has worked as Director of R&D at Extremely OK Games.

<i>Everything, Everything</i> (novel) 2015 novel by Nicola Yoon

Everything, Everything is the debut young adult novel by Jamaican-American author Nicola Yoon, first published by Delacorte Books for Young Readers in 2015. The novel centers on 18-year-old Madeline Whittier, who is being treated for severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), also known as "bubble baby disease". Due to this, Madeline is kept inside her house in Los Angeles, where she lives with her mother, a doctor.

<i>Everything, Everything</i> (film) 2017 film by Stella Meghie

Everything, Everything is a 2017 American romantic drama film directed by Stella Meghie and written by J. Mills Goodloe, based on Nicola Yoon’s 2015 novel of the same name. The film was produced by Elysa Dutton and Leslie Morgenstein and stars Amandla Stenberg and Nick Robinson and follows a young woman named Maddy Whittier (Stenberg) who has a serious medical condition that prevents her from leaving her home, and her neighbor, Olly Bright (Robinson), who wants to help her experience life and they begin falling in love.

<i>Fatherhood</i> (film) 2021 film by Paul Weitz

Fatherhood is a 2021 American comedy-drama film directed by Paul Weitz from a screenplay by Weitz and Dana Stevens based on the 2011 memoir Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love by Matthew Logelin. The film stars Kevin Hart, Alfre Woodard, Frankie R. Faison, Lil Rel Howery, DeWanda Wise, Anthony Carrigan, Melody Hurd, and Paul Reiser, and follows a new father who struggles to raise his daughter after the sudden death of his wife.

<i>Maid</i> (miniseries) American drama miniseries

Maid is an American drama limited series created for Netflix by Molly Smith Metzler. The series is inspired by Stephanie Land's memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive. Its story focuses on a young mother who escapes an abusive relationship and struggles to provide for her daughter by getting a job cleaning houses. It premiered on Netflix on October 1, 2021.

<i>The Fall of the House of Usher</i> (miniseries) American horror drama television miniseries

The Fall of the House of Usher is an American gothic horror drama television miniseries created by Mike Flanagan. All eight episodes were released on Netflix on October 12, 2023, each directed by either Flanagan or Michael Fimognari, with the latter also acting as cinematographer for the entire series.

<i>Treason</i> (TV series) British spy thriller miniseries

Treason is a British television spy miniseries created by Matt Charman for the streaming service Netflix. It stars Olga Kurylenko, Oona Chaplin, Ciarán Hinds, and Charlie Cox.

References

  1. ↑ Schuessler, Jennifer. "New York Times Best Seller list". The New York Times.
  2. ↑ "A New Baby, a Wife's Death, and a Dad on His Own". People Magazine. January 26, 2009.
  3. 1 2 "About Netflix – KEVIN HART DRAMA "FATHERHOOD" TO BE RELEASED ON NETFLIX FATHer's DAY WEEKEND".
  4. ↑ "The Liz Logelin Foundation".
  5. ↑ "An Ad for the Worst Day of Your Life". Reply All. June 21, 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Logelin, Matthew (2011). Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love . New York, Boston: Grand Central. ISBN   978-0-446-56430-4.
  7. ↑ "Matt Logelin on Huffington Post". HuffPost .
  8. ↑ Matt Logelin on Flickr. "Matt, Liz, and Madeline: Life and Death, all in a 27-Hour Period". MattLogelin.com.
  9. ↑ "A Single Dad Finds Support From Strangers". Rachael Ray Show. Archived from the original on 2011-11-19. Retrieved 2011-10-11.
  10. ↑ "Matt Logelin Talks About Losing His Wife After Childbirth". Oprah Winfrey Show.
  11. ↑ Franklin, Sarah (2 April 2011). "Just the Two of Us". Guardian UK. London.
  12. ↑ "Matt Logelin Speaks at National Conference on Widowhood". MattLogelin.com, MP3 audio file. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  13. ↑ "Matt Logelin Interview". Rockabyebabymusic.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-30. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  14. ↑ "New York Times Best Seller list – May 1, 2011". NY Times. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  15. ↑ Trescott, Jacqueline (11 May 2011). "Matt Logelin Headlines Gaithersburg Book Festival". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  16. ↑ "Annual Meeting 2011". Vascular Disease Foundation. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  17. ↑ "Memories That Became Memoirs – Panel". West Hollywood Book Fair. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  18. ↑ "Matt Logelin Reads From Two Kisses for Maddy". Scripps College – Media. Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  19. ↑ Logelin, Matthew (14 April 2011). "Love, Loss, and Suddenly, Single Parenthood". Huffington Post.
  20. ↑ "Press". Two Kisses for Maddy: Official Website. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  21. ↑ "Liz Logelin Foundation Helps 36 Families". Press Release. Retrieved 11 October 2011.[ dead link ]
  22. ↑ "The Liz Logelin Foundation".
  23. ↑ "Matt Logelin's Workshop – Revisiting Places That Matter". Camp Widow.org. Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  24. ↑ "Matt Logelin to Appear on Healing the Grieving Heart". Press Release. Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  25. ↑ Coppa, Chrissy. "Glamour Girls: Liz and Madeline". Glamour Magazine's Storked Blog – June 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  26. ↑ Roan, Shari (26 April 2011). "Caesarean Sections a Major Factor in Pregnancy Related Deaths". LA Times – April 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
  27. ↑ "After Death from Childbirth, Family Wounds Still Healing". California Watch. Archived from the original on 23 October 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.