At Eva’s funeral, we released pink balloons into the sky.
We told our son, James, ‘this is going to help Eva fly up to heaven’.
But the truth is, she’s with us every day. In every goodnight kiss, in every family hug. And in every song we sing, Eva is here with us.
Nothing or no one can ever take away the sorrow of losing your child.
But we are so grateful LauraLynn was there for us. They came to us in our darkest moment. They minded us, and rescued us.
We’ll never forget the day when Eva started limping. She was only 18-months-old.
We brought her to hospital. But the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with her. A week later, Eva had gotten worse. We brought her straight back to hospital, where the doctors ran test after test.
We were told Eva had a brain tumour.
She might not survive the week.
For the next two days, doctors were in and out of Eva’s hospital room, explaining what was happening to her, and showing us scans. We couldn’t process anything. We were in shock, as you could probably imagine.
And even though we were surrounded by doctors, nurses and hospital staff, we never felt more alone.
LauraLynn got in touch with us in hospital. They talked to us about how they could help us. We spent the next two weeks in LauraLynn. We slept in a the family suite, with Eva beside us. They fed us and looked after our every need. And they trained us on how to give Eva her medications, so we could bring her home.
This Christmas, another family like mine could be told they only have days or weeks left with their child.
During the day, we had some of LauraLynn’s care team at home with us. They helped us with Eva’s medications, they listened to us when we needed to talk. They never left our side.
For a brief moment, the doctors thought Eva had turned a corner. But she quickly took a turn. We saw the spark go from behind her eyes.
We brought Eva home and got her into bed with us. Early the next morning, as she lay between us, Eva took her last breath.
Our baby girl was gone.
In hospital, Eva was only given a week. We got eleven weeks with her.
And thanks to people like you, we were able to bring her home. We could sing songs together, blow bubbles and kisses at each other, and sit out in the garden together as a family. The way we used to do before Eva got sick.
LauraLynn helped us make the most of every last moment.
We’ll never forget what people like you did for Eva. For our whole family.
And we hope after reading Eva’s story, you won’t forget her.
Thank you, and Happy Christmas,
Lisa and Leigh White,
Parents to Eva, James, and baby Annie
