Woman’s Boyfriend Dies Suddenly at 23. Three Months Later, Their Surprise Baby Dies (Exclusive)

Abby Young is opening up to PEOPLE about a year that's changed her life

A lot can change over the course of a year — something no one knows better than Abigail Young.

A year ago, Abby was working as an EMT and going about her day-to-day life. It wasn't until March 2023 that she met a man on Tinder who changed her steady course.

"We chatted back and forth for a while, going from the app to texts to social media. After a few weeks, we planned a date," she tells PEOPLE.

Chad, a student at UT Chatanooga, invited Abigail to visit campus. She took a chance on the hour-and-a-half-long journey.

"I was so nervous the whole way because I hadn't met him in person before, but I was really excited because of our conversations leading up until then. I knew he was going to be an amazing person."

The two hit it off and as time progressed, their dates went from sushi and driving around, listening to music to meeting each other's families and deeper conversations about their future. The two exchanged "I love yous" and considered themselves officially a couple by July.

"We started talking a little bit more seriously about our future and what we wanted. He got an internship opportunity with this big company because he was in school for construction management. And he started working out the details of what we planned to do, within the next five years," Abby recalls.

"One of the things that he said that he wanted was he wanted to have children," she explains, citing his difficult upbringing and desire for those bonds.

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"He said, 'I spent the last 20-few years of my life alone. I've done nothing but work and I think that it's time for me to get my life started and I want to share that with you,'" she shares, noting the two decided to start trying from there.

The couple enjoyed a sweet anniversary together before Abby would get an unthinkable phone call. After talking to Chad —who complained of feeling unwell but chalked it up to his job site that day — the night prior, she was getting off work when she got a phone call that she could have never anticipated.

"I got a message from Chad's mom that said, 'Please call me,' " she recalls. By the time she'd called back, his father answered and delivered devastating news on July 27.

"At first he said [Chad's mom] was having trouble breathing, so I thought they were calling me for medical advice, which family members sometimes do since I'm an EMT," she says. "And before I can say anything, he tells me, 'Chad is dead.'"

Abby remembers being "unable to understand what he meant."

"I couldn't tell if he was joking or if I misheard him, and then he said, 'Abby, Chad died.' And then he told me they had an ambulance pick him up and they were taking him to the hospital."

Abby was devastated by the news. Not only had she lost the person she was working on building a life with, but the two were also keeping quiet about a series of inconclusive pregnancy tests that Abby had taken.

"I was trying to rationalize what I had been told and I just fell to the floor. I couldn't believe this man that promised me the world just days before was no longer here," she says, noting she immediately called her family for support.

Alongside Chad's family, Abby laid him to rest on Aug. 2., after which Abby decided to spend some time at home with her own mom.

"My mom said, 'Honey, I think you need to take a pregnancy test,' " she says. "And I told her, 'I don't know if I'm ready to do that.'"

With her mom's support, Abby took another test. Unlike her previous results, which would initially read negative and eventually change over to positive, this time she received a positive result right away.

"I just fell to the floor crying because that was all he talked about, was how excited he was to be a dad. And all I could think about was how I was about to have his child that he wanted so bad, and he wasn't going to be here to see it," Abby says.

"I was also happy to have a piece of him to carry with me forever, but devastated he wasn't there to share it with me," she says.

Abby immediately shared the news with Chad's family, who were also overwhelmed to learn that the baby was on the way.

"I told his mom, 'I want you to be one of the first people to know because this is your grandbaby. This is our family.' And she said, 'I'm here for you, whatever you need. I'll be at every appointment. I'll be there every step of the way.'"

At her first appointment, Chad's mom Brandy was by Abby's side as she learned her baby was due on April 9 — three days before what would have been Chad's 24th birthday.

"I can't contain my tears and Brandy starts crying because it's so close to Chad's birthday. I don't know how to explain the intensity of that date, being so significant. But it was crazy to the both of us."

Abby began to prepare for the baby, she found herself a new place to live that was closer to family. Through September, her appointments reported a healthy baby who passed genetic testing with flying colors. That month, she also learned she was expecting a baby boy, whom she planned to name Chad Jr. (CJ).

"At this point, I had not publicly announced that I was pregnant. Only my bosses and a few close family members and close friends knew. I was ready to announce so I went to Hobby Lobby to get supplies together," she recalls of making the Nightmare Before Christmas-themed announcement.

"I took pictures of it and I posted it on my TikTok, giving a backstory to everything that had happened leading up to this point. It was Oct 19th and at this point, I'm finally starting to have hope about the future. I'm starting to feel this nurturing instinct of what I need to do as a mother. I start making a baby registry and picking out all of the things that I need."

As she posted the TikTok and congratulations started pouring in, Abby remembers, "I'm starting to get excited, I'm full of joy."

The next day, she was working a 24-hour shift when her lieutenant expressed concerns that Abby looked pale and sick. To be safe, the superior tested her heart rate and blood pressure and wasn't happy with the results.

"I had tachycardia. My heart was beating 174 beats per minute, which is really dangerous. And so my lieutenant calls my shift commander and he says that I don't have a choice, I need to go to the hospital immediately."

"They put a heart monitor on me and gave me fluids and checked on CJ. CJ was doing fine and my heart rate came down, so they sent me home, but I was still super worried about CJ's condition. I scheduled an early appointment with my OB for a checkup and to tell her everything that was going on."

During the exam, the nurse struggled to find CJ's heartbeat.

"She's digging in my pelvis and she finally looks at me and says, 'Abby, I'm so sorry. I cannot find his heartbeat. I'm going to send you to ultrasound immediately to check on him and see what's going on."

The ultrasound confirmed that CJ no longer had a heart beat. "And so my doctor comes in and tells me, because of everything you've been through and how far along you are, we want to induce a natural birth so that when you deliver CJ, he will be intact," she tearfully recalls. "You're able to take him home and have him buried with Chad."

The next day, they began the process of inducing Abby and later that night, she began having contractions.

"We got to the hospital and they checked me in. They put this monitor on me to check the contractions as my family calls Chad's family for everyone to get to the hospital. Then they say I'm probably not going to deliver for a while, so everybody goes home."

"The next day, the contractions started again, but they said that in order for me to have an epidural, I couldn't eat for however long and I didn't want to go into labor on an empty stomach. So they gave me breakfast and waited hours, at which point the rest of my and Chad's family showed up and they gave me the epidural."

Despite the epidural, Abby could feel the contractions, Still, she was being told she wasn't dilated and they expected her to go another day before the baby was born.

"Everyone leaves and I have this out-of-body experience kind of contraction that is overwhelming. And I tell my nurse, 'I know I'm not supposed to feel anything but I felt that contraction. I think my water broke,' " she says. "So the nurse checks and I feel another contraction and she stops and says, 'Abby, please don't move.'"

As Abby sits still, the nurse informs her she delivered CJ in that moment, on Oct. 25. The nurse rounded up backup and they were able to give Abby her baby boy to hold.

"They made everybody in the room leave so it was just me and my little boy alone," she says. "I held him as long as I could and I looked over him and could see so much of Chad in this beautiful baby boy that we wanted so bad."

"My heart breaks again because I know that I can't take him home, and I can't hear him cry. I know I'm not gonna change his diapers or kiss his boo-boos or take him to school for the first time. I felt this new grief that I never experienced before as I tried to accept that this is my reality and it is so hard."

Abby invited her family back in to meet CJ and say their goodbyes. "The next morning, they come in and take CJ from the cooling incubator and I get ready and leave. That same day, we showed up to the funeral home to plan my baby's funeral."

The next day, the family gathered to say goodbye to CJ. "We drove all the way there and we show up and they have this teeny little coffin and it's white. Somebody had made a preemie blanket with a Florida Gators emblem on it [signifying Chad's favorite team] and laid it over the coffin."

Abby admits she doesn't remember much of the service, saying, I was in such a state of mourning that I couldn't understand what anyone was saying. I'm just grieving the loss of my soulmate and our child."

"After, we went home and I went with Brandy to her house and went up to Chad's room to lay in his bed. And I said the best prayer I could muster and told him that I know CJ's with him wherever he is and they're going to be happy together," Abby says. "I know that someday, I'll get to join them and we can be a family again."

Today, she admits that she "still doesn't know exactly where I'm going with everything."

"I've started going back to work again and I'm surrounded by my fire family. I've had a lot of support after having to take a bunch of time off," she adds, explaining a GoFundMe was started for her after she learned the time off was unpaid.

Eventually, Abby was ready to circle back to TikTok and share how her story had progressed since she last posted announcing her pregnancy.

"I noticed that my views had gotten up to about 200,000 on the video of the announcement that I posted and I realized that all of these people were following my story. I felt like I needed to catch everybody up to date on what had happened," she says.

"I made another video explaining everything and that got a bit of backlash," Abby shares. "Some people said it wasn't real and I had made it up. I linked my GoFundMe to my TikTok because my family suggested it since I was getting so many views and that got even more negativity."

Abby explained in another video that the money was more than she would need and was happy to donate the excess to a donation of her followers' choosing, but didn't get much of a response. She did get a lot of sympathy from women who had been through similar situations, however.

"I got condolences and I got a lot of women relating to my story, which really stood out to me. Knowing that there are so many women out there who have had to deal with significant loss at a young age, it kind of gave me a will to keep going."

"It makes me feel less alone, but it's also devastating because it's not something that you'd want anybody to go through. I wouldn't wish this type of grief on my worst enemy. It's also reassuring and sometimes it can be validating because it is such a lonely, lonely journey. No matter how many people you've lost, until you experience a loss like this, losing a significant other and a child, it's hard to relate.

Amid the holiday season, Abby continues to try and recover from the whirlwind her year has been. "I spend a lot of time with Chad's family. I spent Thanksgiving with them. I've also been spending a lot of time with my own family and my friends."

The people around her have encouraged Abby to "look for new hobbies, plan vacations, things like that."

She continues, "After everything that happened, I still don't know where exactly I'm going with all of it, but I started to go back to work again. So I'm surrounded by my fire family, who have given a lot of support since I had to take almost a month off work for recovery, emotionally and physically."

"I'm doing everything I can to keep Chad's legacy alive and to keep CJ's legacy alive. And I hope that this reaches people who need it, so they can have somebody they relate to. I want to bring awareness that these types of tragedies don't always happen to people later in life and that it can happen to anybody."

"Life is short and you need to live it to the fullest," she adds. "I'm grateful that I had the opportunity with Chad and had an emotionally fulfilling relationship with him to keep me get to where I am right now. There was so much love and happiness and joy that came out of this and I will always be able to cherish that no matter where I'm at in life or what I'm doing."

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