This is Afton. "Afton was her high school's homecoming queen last fall, she was named Miss Warren Central High School, she was voted class favorite, was the captain of her swimming team this year, scored a 33 on the ACT (that's the 99th percentile), earned a full-ride scholarship to BYU for this fall, took AP classes her senior year, and is graduating with honors." On May 22, 2014 she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ewing Sarcoma which is a rare childhood bone cancer. When she was diagnosed she was given only a few days to live but Heavenly Father allowed her to live for another year. I met Afton at a church activity a few months ago and talked with her for a while. This morning she passed away. On May 8th her doctors told her there was nothing else they could do for her and gave her roughly 3 months left to live. Her parents asked her what her wish would be before she passed and she immediately said she wanted to go to the temple and walk across the stage at her high school graduation. The cancer had attacked her legs which made it very painful to walk. So on May 20th she went to the temple where she took out her endowments and two days ago she walked across the stage to receive her diploma. One thing this girl did was unite a community. So many people from so many different faiths fasted and prayed for her during their church services. At church this morning I overheard someone say that she had passed away, I was so heartbroken for her parents. I talked about her passing with my young women, some of them knew her. We talked about how her community would have made anything possible for her to do before she returned back to God, but really all Afton wanted was to go to the temple. I am so proud of this girl and I am grateful to have known her.
Some only need a short time in this world to make a big impact-- she sounds like she was one of those people.
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