Happy Birthday Haley

Today is my sister Haley's birthday. She passed away shortly after her thirteenth birthday, but she would have been 21 today. Haley had Down's Syndrome and was born with three holes in her heart. She had heart issues all her life and died while waiting for a heart/lung transplant in the Tucson heart hospital. This is a picture of us just over ten years ago.
Since Haley loved her birthday, I decided to do a post about her today on her most favorite of days. Haley liked her birthday so much that she would talk about it all year long. When she first met my sister-in-law, she told Amy that her birthday was coming up soon. Amy asked her when it was, expecting her to say June or July since it was the early summer. She was a little surprised when Haley said, "After Christmas." (Amy, I just found that story written down on a pad of paper I used to write down stories people told me about Haley just after her death.)

Haley loved just about everyone and everything, except bread and chores and, for some odd reason, her achievement day leader. I swear the lady was one of the nicest women in the ward, but Haley just detested her. When I would go pick her up, Haley would meet me at the door and say something like, "Oh good, you're here. Let's get out of here." She didn't even want to stay and eat dessert. Other than that, though, she tended to love everyone, and everyone loved her. When she was in the hospital, she had no less than three birthday parties arranged by different people wanting to celebrate with her. A couple of the girls in her school came down to have a party when I was there. The mom told me that her daughter had talked about Haley, this funny girl in her p.e. class, the whole year. However, she didn't mention that Haley had Down's Syndrome until she got sick and the daughter wanted to go down to Tucson to wish her a happy birthday. Haley was just another kid in her class at school.

Shortly before Haley got sick, I took her with me to Target. We tried on hats, and I bought her a cheese pizza and a rootbeer at the snack bar. As we were leaving the store, she grabbed my hand and told me I was the best sister ever. I have to say that whenever she was happy with me, I was the best. Whenever she was unhappy, I was her step-sister. But even knowing that we have three other sisters and that each one had been the best sister ever at one point or another, I still felt like I was the best. Haley was like that. I remember one of my uncles coming up to me at the funeral and telling me pretty much the same thing- that his family liked visiting us because Haley always made them feel like they were her favorite people. She made everyone feel like that.

When Haley was in the hospital, she spent a lot of time entertaining her doctors and nurses. One time she was getting her nails painted when the surgeon came in. She insisted that he couldn't leave until he got his nails done too, so he agreed to get his pinky painted. Even the big-shot doctors did what Haley wanted. Because she had such an open and loving personality, she opened doors for other kids like her. One of the nurses told my sister-in-law that they hadn't admitted any kids with Down's Syndrome into the transplant program before Haley because they thought the quality of life just wasn't there. However, after they experienced Haley and all her hilarious quirks, they changed their minds about what kind of life a person with Down's Syndrome can have.

As you can tell, Haley brought a lot of joy into my life and I miss her. I love you Haley!