'Two Kisses for Maddy' author turns wife's loss into legacy

Maddy Logelin is 8 years old now, a happy, healthy, independent child who has almost reached her mother's adult height of 4 feet 11. She is the spitting image of her mom, Liz, who died 27 hours after her daughter's premature birth.

Matt Logelin, 38, formerly of Minnetonka, shared his journey of grief over losing his wife and the joy and struggles of raising their daughter in a blog read worldwide. Two years after his wife's death, he wrote a book titled "Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love."

Actor Channing Tatum, through his film production company and Sony TriStar, has optioned the rights to the New York Times bestseller and may star in the film version, the newspaper Variety reported in 2015.

The Logelins live in Los Angeles but make frequent visits to the Twin Cities.

The two, along with Logelin's girlfriend, Lizzie Molyneux, were in Minneapolis this past weekend for a benefit comedy show for the Liz Logelin Foundation, a charity Logelin started to support young widows and widowers with children.

The show Saturday night at the Minneapolis Central Library featured local comedians with headliner Dan Mintz, the voice of Tina Belcher on the animated sitcom "Bob's Burgers." Molyneux is a head writer on the show.

The foundation has helped close to 200 families with resources, connections and money.

Logelin has also written a children's book, "Be Glad Your Dad … (Is Not an Octopus!)" Maddy helped.

Matt and Liz (Goodman) Logelin had the makings of a fairy-tale love story. They grew up in Minnetonka and met at a gas station while they were both high school seniors. They endured a long-distance relationship while both were in college, then traveled the world together — he proposed in Nepal — and settled in Los Angeles. The pair planned to return to Minnesota when their daughter was born.

It was a difficult pregnancy. Liz was on bed rest for five weeks before Madeline Elizabeth Logelin was born by C-section seven weeks early. Liz saw her baby for just a moment, but the doctor told her to stay in bed for another 24 hours before she held her daughter.

The next day, as Matt helped Liz out of bed and into a wheelchair, she collapsed. She died of a pulmonary embolism on March 25, 2008, 27 hours after Maddy's birth.

Her mother's story has been part of Maddy's life from the start. It's never been a taboo subject and Maddy has grown to know her mom through photos, stories and everyday objects. Before she started school, Logelin took his daughter to many of the places he had visited with his wife.

"We still talk about her daily," Logelin said. "I don't know all the answers, but for us, it's worked really, really well. She seems incredibly happy."

Maddy is in the third grade. She loves to read and to draw. She loves her new puppy. She changes her mind frequently about what she wants to be when she grows up. Sometimes it's an artist, sometimes it's a space scientist or marine biologist. She sees her grandparents and cousins in Minnesota often and visits her auntie Deb Goodman, an attorney in Oakland, Calif.

"She's been flying by herself," Matt said. "She's flourishing in a way I could only imagine when she was born."

Pat Pheifer • 612-673-7252