‘Priceless’: Family begs community for help finding late son’s onesie

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A mother who lost everything is looking for the one thing she may be able to get back: the outfit her child used to wear.

After an accidental sale to Once Upon a Child in North Charleston, Xeyana Bell, and her husband Christopher Bell, are looking for whoever purchased their son’s sleeper.

The sleeper got stuck in a hand-me-down basket intended for her niece and was sold to Once Upon a Child in North Charleston.

Once Upon a Child confirmed it was purchased from the Rivers Avenue location on March 4 at approximately 10:30 a.m. with a pre-paid Visa card. The store says there was no name associated with the card.

This sleeper is so important to the Bell family because it was their son’s, who passed away only one hour after he was born.

“That sleeper is priceless to us because, when you have a child die, you only have so many memories,” Xeyana Bell said. “And that sleeper holds so much memory for us throughout his whole pregnancy and when he was with us. So, that would just mean the world for us.”

Xeyana found out she was pregnant in July of 2021. Everything went well, until the 18-week mark, when they found out their son, Flynn, had an interrupted aortic branch. He was given a 0% chance of living outside of the womb.

The family tells me once Flynn was born, a double rainbow appeared outside the hospital window and went away right after he passed.

“When he passed, all of those thoughts and feelings went to physical possessions, like, ‘oh man, he would’ve worn this when we came home from the hospital,’” Chris Bell said.

Xeyana said she went to hold the sleeper because she was missing Flynn-- that’s when she realized it was missing.

“We have that, and we have a little bear that’s his exact birth weight. So usually, I have the both of them. So, when I couldn’t find it, I was having a little panic attack,” Xeyana said.

After finding out the sleeper was purchased from Once Upon a Child, Xeyana turned to Facebook.

“Maybe if I make a post it will reach like 50, 100 people,” Xeyana said. “I didn’t think it would blow up and all of Charleston would be seeing it.”

Anyone with information, is asked to email Xeyana at xeyanabell@pm.me.

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