Father and son deliver annual baked gratitude to nursing staff who saved premature baby

MANASSAS, Va. — At UVA Health Prince William Medical Center, deliveries happen every day. But each March brings one delivery that staff have come to expect and cherish.

“Through the years they’ve come to expect we’ll come,” Michael Dietz said.

The annual visits from Michael Dietz, and his father Tim Dietz, trace back to the uncertain beginning of Michael’s life 33 years ago. He arrived prematurely and spent his earliest days surrounded by tubes, machines and worried parents.

LeeAnn Brown and Cathy Vetal remember those days well, as two of the nurses who cared for Michael Dietz in the neonatal intensive care unit.

“I met Tim [when] he was coming in every morning and afternoon to visit,” Brown recalled.

During that exhausting stretch, Tim Dietz rarely slept. Instead, he found comfort in the kitchen.

“He would sing ‘Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore,’” Brown said. “And that’s a memory I will keep forever and ever and ever.”

While his infant son fought to grow stronger, Tim Dietz started baking dozens of muffins and other baked goods, and bringing them to the hospital staff.

The gesture continued on Michael’s first birthday. Then the next one. And nearly every birthday since.

“It means the world to me,” Brown said, and Vetal echoed the sentiment. 

Each year, Tim Dietz includes a card with the muffins. Nurses often pin them to the bulletin board alongside old newspaper clippings about Michael’s story.

“He’s not that sick little baby anymore,” Tim Dietz said.

For Brown and Vetal, the visit itself is the real gift.

“Just for him to show up is the gift,” Vetal said.

And the reunion still brings hugs — a reminder of the tiny patient who grew into the man standing before them.

“It makes it worth it,” Brown said. “It makes you realize that what you’re doing is something more.”

Brown said the moment resonates personally. After experiencing loss in her own life, she remembers the feeling of helplessness.

“For me this is just so tangible,” Brown said. “We were able to help him.”

But the Dietz family said the annual visit isn’t really about pastries. It’s about the message behind them.

“I hope that the parents of premature babies or sick children can maybe gain some hope,” Tim Dietz said. “Good things can happen.”