Elena Desserich was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer when she was five and given four-and-a-half months to live. She made it past her sixth birthday, though, lasting nine months.
Her parents never told her that the prognosis was fatal, but according to this heart-rending story, she must have known — she left heart-decorated notes in crayon, stuffed into cracks and hidden in books, for her family to find after she was gone:
Keith doesn’t remember the first one she left because for awhile, he and Brooke thought her notes were part of the daily household clutter that had accumulated over the years.
“But after you get to 20 or 30 you realize this isn’t just scraps,” he says. “We don’t even know when her notes started. We have three Rubbermaid boxes full.” There could be 300, they haven’t counted.
Elena left them for her grandmother too, and even a great-aunt’s Chihuahua she adored, who stood guard at her bedside until the end.
Grant Hamilton
2 Responses to “Tear-jerker Friday: Dying six-year-old stashed notes around the house for her family to find after she was gone”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Okay, it worked. I’m crying.