As a Zechus

In an article about challa baking, one woman who was interviewed said she started making challa when her son was sick. She wanted to bake challa as a zechus for his refuah shleima.  Sadly, her son passed away but she felt that the mitzvah of challa had to be taught and she began giving classes.

Later in the article, in a sidebar, it describes gemachs for challa.  They are variations  on the idea of women being given names to daven for when they make challa.  The woman I referred to above is quoted as saying that when her son was sick, women gathered in groups of 40 to take challa as a zechus.  She has set up a hotline to continue this idea, in which women call for names to daven for.

It struck me, and the article makes no mention of this, that being asked to daven for a sick person while taking challa, by someone who did just that for her son, and her son died, is not very inspirational.  I thought better of writing this to the publication since it's tragic and I don't want to hurt anyone. 

I know that we don't always see the results that we wanted, and that the Gemara talks about giving tzedaka "so that my son lives" and that it doesn't always result in good news.  But somehow this strikes me differently.  Maybe because it's not brought in the Gemara.  Some other reason?

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