Elle

This last week has been an extremely heartbreaking week in our neighborhood.  Let me start back a little before I explain.

  Cody and Luke are good friends with two boys in our neighborhood named Getty and Sy. It's always been such a great thing because they are both the same age as my boys, they are brothers and they have a lot of the same interests, which means they spend a lot of time with each other!   When they first started hanging out, Getty's little sister Elle would follow the boys around every where they went. See, Elle had a huge crush on Cody, even though there was a 10 year age gap between them! I loved to hear from Elle's mom and dad how much she loved being around Cody. And Cody being a kid with the sweetest heart, especially for little kids loved the attention he got from Elle.  She even made  up a song just for Cody titled "The Cody song".  In fact when we moved back from Australia I asked Cody how Elle was and if she was still crushing on him. He of course turned red and said "yes, she still sings me my song"! This crush started a few years ago and sadly ended today.  

On Saturday afternoon Elle was walking home from a friends house, who lived only two houses up from hers.  She was walking on the sidewalk, but when she got into the neighbors driveway, the owner of the home happened to be backing up at the same time. He never even saw Elle until he was completely back up and  in the street.  She had been run over twice.  They lifeflighted her to Primary Children Hospital  where she was put on life support.  By Sunday morning we received word at church that she wasn't doing well and had taken a turn for the worse. It was of course an emotional day at church, but it was comforting to be with our friends who knew Elle and loved her family. Only a few hours later we received word that she was starting to get function back in a kidney and the test were coming back in a positive turn.  They were so many of us fasting and praying for little Elle that we had hope that we would see a miracle. 

Yesterday at school, Cody and Getty spent the entire lunch time talking about Elle. I arrived at the school after lunch and Getty begged me to let Cody come over after school to play. I was hesitate but then conceited because I knew getting things back to normal would be good for the boys.  I dropped Cody off at their house and even talked to the teenage girls and received good news about Elle. It wasn't ten minutes later that Cody called and asked me to come back and get him. The kids had heard from their parents that Elle had had a stroke and they wanted them to come to the hospital as soon as possible.  

Today we heard from Loreene, Elle's mom that they had decided to take Elle off life support.  

Cody and Luke have really taken Elle's death hard. But we have had some really good discussions about death, the Lord's will and forgiveness.  See, the person who hit Elle was their next door neighbor.  Luke at first was angry with him and it's been good to explain forgiveness to him and have him actually know what it's like to forgive someone.  

The next few days will still be heartbreaking as we attend the funeral for this sweet girl.  Luke asked if we would receive an invitation so that we would be able to go to it.  I explained that we didn't need an invitation and that we would of course be going! My heart breaks when I see how sad this has made them and how they have to deal with something like this when they are so young.  But I'm also so impressed with how they handled this situation.  They were so eager to pray for her and all the time. Luke has asked me if we can go get them a present to make them happy! It's also been a great time to talk more about our Savior and the gospel with my kids and they understand how important and our grateful they have it in their lives especially  during these hard times.

So, hug your kids a little tighter tonight, because you can! Tell them often how much you love them! We will miss you Elle!

 This is a picture Elle's dad sent us in the fall of 2010. He wanted us to see how much Elle loved Cody and how she always wanted him to hold her! The other boys in the picture are Getty (on the left) and Sy (on the right).  When he sent the picture he put in the subject line "Elle's crush".

A recent picture of Elle