Where do I start? Presley Ava came into this world with a bang. She decided she didn’t

want to wait until her due date, so she came three weeks early. Our hearts were so full the day she was born. She was truly one of a kind and a girl who beat to her own drum. Pres made her sister, Logan, a big sister and my husband and I girl parents to two beautiful girls.

On December 13, 2022, literally one month since her fourth birthday to the day, we got

news that no parent ever wants to get. “Your daughter is very sick, and I am sorry to say that she has a form of Leukemia.” Those were the words said to us when we found out. At the time, the tests weren’t back yet on which kind, but during our talk with her team, we found out it was Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL). As distraught as we were about her diagnosis, we were ready to go full force with her treatment and get her cured. That was always our endgame. She would ring the bell and be cured and then we would party.

We went through every symptom, I feel, that you can think of. Presley’s hair thinning

and then us deciding it need to be shaved because the loose strands were driving her already sensory overloaded brain crazy, she would have bouts of nausea and vomiting. Several hospital stays and the last few were dealing with C-Diff. She never gave up. She never lost her feisty personality and loved to always roar like a dinosaur at her team at clinic and during hospital stays. That was her love language to them. She knew she could trust them wholeheartedly and she was only ever sassy and feisty with those she loves.

We were admitted to the hospital for a 104 degree fever on June 30, 2023. She couldn’t break the fever that she had, and she started showing signs and symptoms of an illness that is very scary, fungal lung disease. Although her biopsies were inconclusive, we really couldn’t rule that out completely. On July 17, Presley coded during her biopsy. She was placed in ECMO and we went to another children’s hospital with the hope that her heart just needed some more time to heal, but we knew our little girl gained her wings that day. On July 18, 2023, we said goodbye for now to our warrior.

There has never been a doubt in my mind that Presley didn’t give myself, her dad, her

older sister, her puppies and all her family the best four years. We know for sure that she

probably has a pet tiger and sloth of her own in her spirit’s next journey. She will forever be our little Valkyrie.

Written by Presley’s parents, Tony and Brittany and her big sister, Logan

Please consider helping children with cancer and others in our community by scheduling a blood donation at Miller-Keystone Blood Center: https://donor.giveapint.org/donor/schedules/zip