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Heersche family
Undated photo of Taylor Heersche
What was supposed to be a welcome-home parade instead turned into a somber candlelight vigil for a terminally ill 15-year-old Kansas girl who died hours before she was to return home.
Residents of the town of Mulvane had decorated Main Street with ribbons and signs in orange — the color of leukemia awareness — to welcome Taylor Heersche home Tuesday evening, The Wichita Eagle reported.
Taylor had been terminally ill with cancer and had told her family she wanted to be at home to die. Doctors at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City told the family she had only a few more days to live, so the plan was to release her to be with her family and friends.
But Taylor passed away Tuesday morning at the hospital, with her parents, DeAnne and Dan Heersche, at her side.
Instead of the parade, Mulvane residents gathered for a candlelight vigil late Tuesday to honor the Mulvane High School sophomore, the Eagle reported.
“I’ll bet every parent says that their kid was special. But she was a real people person. There were no strangers,” DeAnne Heersche said of her daughter, according to the Eagle.
“That kind of kid leaves a huge hole not only in our family, but in the community. We’re all going to miss her horribly.”
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"It's still a homecoming in our eyes, it's just a different home that she's going to, a better home that she's going to, so it's more of a celebration than the grief," Maggie Keys, one of Taylor's classmates, was quoted as saying by KWCH-TV.
Taylor, a sophomore at Mulvane High School, was diagnosed with the leukemia in May 2008 when she was 10.
Taylor's leukemia had been in remission for several years following chemotherapy. But last winter the cancer returned aggressively.
Services are Sunday at Central Community Church in Wichita, with a private burial Monday.
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I am so sorry! How heart wrenching!
So very sad. May the Lord be with you in your sorrow. She is where no pain or sorrow can touch her anymore.
You will find many prayers are with you to help you get through. God bless.
It's really a shame that good people like this little girl have to die before their time. Why can't this happen to the thugs, perverts, and monsters of society instead? How wonderful it would be if, just before a social monster makes their move to abduct a child, perform rape, a molestation, etc., their life-switch would turn off and they'd fall to the ground dead. This would be completely acceptable to me, and society wouldn't suffer the loss of a sweet little girl who would have been a positive influence in the world around her. May Taylor's passage through the veil be hailed as the return of a Princess to her home kingdom.
Hundreds of loved ones die hours before their own welcome home parade every day?!? wow, that is national news, Kenny. Congrats on reading the story and almost getting the point of it, considering how much of a chore it seemed for you to do so.
Really Ken? Couldn't you keep your comment to yourself and simply read the article and think what you wanted to think. I am sure you didn't mean for it to come across cruel but it kind of did.
It is quite amazing to see the lack of tackfulness exhibited by some of the posters in this forum. Regardless if what you say is true or not, there is a time and place for everything. Sometimes a little respect and courtesy should be show at certain times. It has more to do with the family of the deceased than the deceased him/herself.
Sleep well, baby girl.
leukemia and all other cancers are terrible way to die. HOw many dollars has been spent on the search for a cure? How many millions - billions of dollars? Yet they would stand in the way of stem cell research and deny people of a possible answer. Why? Because it is a big money maker for pharmacy and research facilities..
Before this young girl was born she was known byGod. She truly has gone home and she dosen't want to come back. When your in the presence of your creator there's no place else you want to go to. For all who knew and loved her you most surely see her again and what a family reunion it will be. God said that He will never leave us no matter what.I'am sure he was comforting Her before she took her last breath as a human being and her first awareness as she entered life with the Lord. GO GIRL. Your friend and His
Mr. and Mrs. Heershe, I am battling terminal CLL Leukemia and I am so sorry to read your daughter passed away. It is especially sad when a young child succumbs to cancer and misses out on life. Hopefully Jehovah will remember your daughter and bring her back healthy at the resurrection mentioned in John 5:28,29.
Prayers are with the friends and family of Taylor. I'm sure Taylor has touched many lives in her short life and will be in their hearts forever. RIP Taylor.
I knew Taylor personally. This story doesn't even come close to telling her story. She has always been such a strong brave girl who loved everyone she met. She had a very strong faith in god and she has touched lives all over the world. To hear these nasty comments about someone like Taylor is breaking my heart even more. She is a special girl who was never cruel and would stand up for anyone who needed it. She was there for everyone. She was someone that everyone could look up to. Taylor has been fighting this nasty disease for almost 5 years with out fear. She accepted what was going to happen and her only worry was for her family and friends and how they are going to cope with this. Taylor doesn't deserve anyone making nasty comments about her. Her family certainly don't need to see any of them.
I'm so sorry for your lost, my condolences to the family, relatives and friends.
I believe in God and in Heaven and Hell and I hope I make it to Heaven. I'm gonna ask God why the hell he allows things like this happen.
There is no comment that can be said that would mean anything.
I agree. I really can't imagine what her family, or she, went through. It personalizes death when it happens to an identifiable, pictured individual. I wonder how many people her age or younger died in Hurricane Sandy? If we were to see their faces and learn their names, then we would grieve for them as well, because we could then see them as the young people whom they were, rather than just tragic statistics. Horribly, it reminds me of Stalin's justification of his mass murders: "The death of one person is a tragedy. The death of a hundred thousand, a statistic." That's why reading the names on 9-11 is a great tradition. It makes every one of the people who died then as real and as personal as this young girl.
My condolences to her family, the families of all of those who died in Hurricane Sandy, and everyone else who was taken from us entirely too soon. One of them might have been the one who would have developed the cure for this type of leukemia. Now we'll never know.
I didn't bother reading other comments. So, did any republicons blame Obama yet?
No, but exposing your hatred for them in an inappropriate forum gives Liberals and Dems a bad name.
whocares, i fart in your general direction.
Hasten the day where diseases like Leukemia are relegated to the pages of the medical Dark Ages.
This really really sucks.
Cancer sucks.
The world sucks.
This is a very sad story that we shall continue to see, and hear everyday and that sucks.
The fact that all the money and new medical research we have today, yet still no closer to a cure for this disease SUCKS!
RIP
So very sad and a heartwrenching story. Thoughts and prayers to the family and community. RIP Taylor!
Taylor - the stars shine brightly for your journey to the heavens. Rest in peace. In your short life time, you have obviously accomplished more than many others accomplish in a life time.
:-(
Why didn't it occur to anyone planning this that it could turn out this way?
That...brought me to tears.
RIP, Taylor. May God watch over your family and friends.
Someone earlier said cancer is cruel. And it is. My uncle also passed away yesterday from cancer. He wasn't able to recongize anyone the last few days.
Someone needs to do something but I know they are trying. I guess.......
I hate to see bad things happen to good people, especially young people. Rest in peace and may god bless you.