“Lily’s death could have been prevented,”
Lily’s friends shared this months after her death.
How do I encapsulate in words, the experience of knowing Lily, and losing her? It feels impossible to accomplish through these mere characters on a white page. Nothing can show you or give you an understanding of the utter shattering of all levels of my being, nor the destruction to my life, the lives of my family, friends and community. Nothing can allow you to feel the depth of pain in my heart, nor the loudness of her absence. Nothing can truly allow you to feel or understand the unbearable, near impossible work of surviving. Nothing will bring her back...ever...but through trying to speak for her, and for many who suffer as she did, I hope to transform this pain into positive change. Lily’s life mattered, she had incredible value as a human being based on her own incredible personality, tolerance, kindness, empathy and love. I would give anything to bring her back, or to go back in time and pull her out of School and protect her… but I cannot. I can only do my best to honor her and her story, and hope that it helps others who continue to struggle and suffer daily because of the hate and cruelty so prevalent in our world