[Coco] News of Ashley Taylor

[Roger Taylor]

For those who remember my posts last year about my niece Ashley Taylor, I 
have some bad news.

She was 7 years old.  She died today on her way to St. Judes for an air 
treatment.  My brother Doug got in the back of the vehicle with her while 
his wife drove and Ashley took her last few breaths of air and died in his 
arms.

What kept me going all this time is knowing that miracles can happen, and 
that Ashley was also not in any pain because she was on morphine 24/7.  She 
stayed glued to her favorite tv shows, and you could make her giggle 
sometimes if you stayed persistent with your tactics. :)

For Christmas she asked for one thing...  A big black horse.  On Christmas 
day, the whole family watched her receive her present, a big black 
horse.  When I asked her what she was gonna name it, she quickly said, 
Beautiful.  She got to see her horse once or twice more at my sister's ranch.

The saddest and most funniest thing that happened at once (is that 
possible?) is that Ashley and her dad were climbing up onto the horse for 
the first time, and he was holding Ashley, and toppled off the other side 
onto the ground.  Ashley was already real frail and on pain hookups, etc. 
so she could not take any kind of fall like that.  They both hit the ground 
hard.  Everybody panicked and started crying because Ashley was yelling 
that it was hurting her.  The fact was that Doug landed on his shoulder 
area to break the fall, and Ashley never touched the ground, but it did 
scare her pretty bad.  Two minutes later, Ashley broke up the huddle by 
saying, "that wasn't such a good idea".  :) She said she was gonna try 
again later, "but not right now".  :)

Ashley originally told everybody that she didn't want visitors on Christmas 
day and that she was not coming to the party, but at the last hour before 
the party, she changed her mind and decided to come.  So she was around a 
lot of loved ones on Christmas day and everybody gave her extra 
attention.  My last words to her was I Love You and I kissed her on her 
forehead, then I told her See you later, Bye Bye... not knowing if I would 
see her again.

I just wanted to share this news and to mention that I might be kinda 
transparent for a little while as we deal with this but I will be here 
doing my work as usual.


-- 
Roger Taylor