Heaven Gains Special Christmas Angel, Eagle Girl Passes Away

There are no words to describe how heartbroken we are to share this news this evening.

This morning, we woke up to an update from Claire's mom, Annie, that her daughter had another set back. She aspirated and fluid in her lungs. Annie spent the day trying to help Claire breathe using a suction device and administering nebulizer treatments. Unfortunately, this was a sign that Claire's body was shutting down and no longer processing fluids correctly.

Claire passed away early Wednesday morning, just days before the community planned to rally to bring Christmas to Claire in her neighborhood. Every house in the neighborhood agreed to put up their Christmas decorations early and hundreds of people planned to come carol and make Christmas cards for Claire.

Her funeral will be this Saturday, October 19 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Eagle Rd in Eagle. Visitation hours are 9:30-10:30 a.m. The service follows at 11. A celebration of life will take place Saturday, November 2 (the first date for Claire's early Christmas from the community) at Reid Merrill Park. More details will follow.

Thanks to her classmates from Eagle Elementary School of the Arts, she did get a final does of Christmas cheer. They children and their families came to sing carols for her last weekend and decorated Claire's bedroom and medical bed with twinkling garland, wreathes, lights and Christmas trees.

Claire was diagnosed with a terminal brain stem tumor known as DIPG last November.