Holly was diagnosed at the age of eleven with an extremely rare condition known to only impact about fifty people worldwide. It is an illness with a significant impact on multiple bodily systems, but primarily the lungs. The diagnostics were arduous because of the rarity. Holly had to endure lengthy hospital stays and experienced countless scans, tests and doctor visits every few months. Much of her care took place at Cincinnati Children's Hospital which is one of the very few hospitals that has a clinic to treat this illness. Although the illness was a huge part of her life, she refused to be defined by it. She had a passion for life and wanted to live it to the fullest in spite of medical limitations. Even the travel to Cincinnati didn't center around medical intervention. There were so many side trips to baseball games, museums, parks, aquariums, shopping centers, put put and anything else that remotely looked like fun in the area.
She developed such a positive outlook and had an incredible empathy for people. She was involved in so many things that touched the lives of others. Her faith in God grew tremendously and she found strength in that faith. She was an active member of the Missions Team at church and participated in many missions projects to provide food or or essential items to families. She was active in helping to provide support to international missionaries. She enjoyed writing to a child in South America that her family has adopted to support through Compassion International. She had a pen pal at a local nursing home and would write back and forth with that person. She volunteered with the children's ministry and loved to help during Vacation Bible School every year. Although her lung capacity was diminished to less than forty percent and was typically a quiet and reserved person, she frequently sang solos for the church, several of which were acapella.
She was an active Girl Scout beginning in Kindergarten. She was involved a lot of community projects with the troop and seemed to have a penchant for grand ideas that would surpass badge requirements by leaps and bounds. From cookie sales or caring for animals or mental health awareness to hosting a summit to bring awareness to the Gullah Geeche people of the coastal south east she wanted to be involved. Her latest endeavor was to achieve the Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouts. She planned to raise money to purchase kit bags for children and teens that have to be hospitalized at Brenner's Children's Hospital or Cincinnati Children's Hospital. The bags would contain items intended to provide comfort, diversion and grounding to help reduce anxiety and boredom for those children. She also wanted to contribute to the children's and teen room of the hospitals. She also wanted to develop a digital calm corner for those children which is hosted on this web site. Holly was not able to finish this last ambitious project. Several of of her Girl Scout troop members have taken this on with intensions of completing it in honor of Holly.
Holly strove for excellence in her academic work and education. She could be intensely focused and consistently met rigorous standards in coursework at the honors and AP levels, often exceeding those expectations because of her own higher standards. As a high school junior she was already a member of the Japanese Honor Society, and the National Honor Society. She also volunteered to be an online tutor with the NC Virtual Public school. She also loved being involved in the arts in school. She played the violin and the flute. She participated in visual arts and in the drama programs. She loved kids and most recently had plans to become an elementary teacher. Holly would have been proud to be associated with the scholarship program started in her memory.
Holly was fiercely loyal friend with a great sense of humor, had a wonderful laugh and loved talking with her friends. She was also an introvert that found solace in the arts. She would spend hours creating through drawing, writing, painting, sculpting, singing and any craft project she could find. She would also recharge by swinging while listening to an endless Spotify playlist and cuddling up with anything soft, which she referred to as "Floof."
In October or 2024, at the age of seventeen, Holly succumbed to her illness and was taken too soon to be with the Lord. Her legacy is strong and lives on through this site, the scholarship, the calm corner, continuing projects and in the lives of others that she touched during her brief time on Earth.