Olivia’s Story

When I asked Olivia’s mom about her sweet daughter, the word that she used over and over was joy. Her mother described her: “She awoke every morning beaming with excitement for, what the rest of us would consider, mundane or monotonous living. She taught us how to slow down and the beauty of days in bed snuggling. She was pure sunshine.” Olivia’s days were filled with Cocomelon, cuddles with those who cherished her, warm summer days in the pool, and bike rides on her Trio-Bike. Her joy filled every part of her family’s life, her smiles a comfort to her parents even in the hardest times. Some of her mother’s most precious memories of Olivia are of her “sitting on her daddy’s lap and she is making him laugh so hard that they both cannot stop…their eyes are wet, and their bodies are trembling through the laughter…There are few times when you witness something so pure, and so beautiful.”

Olivia’s life was too brief, but she transformed the world around her. Her mother wants her life to be remembered as the gift she was not a tragedy: “It’s hard to do that (I especially know how hard it is to disassociate the beauty from the pain having been there to witness all of the devastation) but Olivia was a rare, precious, life-changing gift to us and she should be remembered as such, without pity…but through eyes of love…and with tears of gratitude, and transformation to all those she’s affected.” We are so grateful for the opportunity we had to be a small part of this beautiful child’s life story.