On Tuesday, July 20th, my family lost a very beloved daughter, granddaughter, niece, sister, and cousin. She was ten days shy of a year old.

None of us has answers as to what happened. Zariah was left alone with her father for 15-20 minutes, and when her mom came back, she had passed away. The autopsy has not given answers yet, although based on preliminary findings, they don’t suspect foul play at this time. We are waiting on more tests, hoping for answers. Right now it feels like we are just grasping at straws.

Our entire family is devastated. We are trying to wrap our heads around what has happened. We were expecting to be celebrating a birthday this Friday, and now we are all booking last minute flights and planning a memorial. We are comforting my grieving sister, Kelsey—her mother—and we are struggling to understand what has happened.

What we do know is that Kelsey loved Zariah so fiercely and was intent on giving that little girl the world. I think Zariah knew that, too. She was so smiley and easy going most of the time. She had just mastered crawling and was working on cutting new teeth. She loved watching movies with her mama and dancing and singing along with the music. She loved going for walks and to the park. Swimming. Stealing bites of dessert. She loved sharing her mom’s dinner with her. Zariah was a mama’s girl, and it’s absolutely tragic that her life ended so early.

Because this was so unexpected, our whole family is working to scrape together the costs for a modest memorial service that honors what an impact Zariah has had on each one of us. Because Zariah was healthy and her death was so sudden, this has been a shock reaching the core of us all.

We put together a Venmo account for those who have offered to donate at this time. The account is @Zariahs-Memorial. This money will be used for Zariah’s after life costs and may also be used to help Kelsey get through the upcoming days if there’s anything leftover.

No one should ever have to bury their child, and we are working to make sure Kelsey is wrapped up in love and support while she has to do the bravest thing she has ever done and say goodbye to her sweet angel girl. Please help us do that if you can.

To view and sign this guestbook, please visit: www.ryanfuneralservice.com.

Ryan Funeral Home & Cremation Services

2418 N. Sherman Avenue

608-249-8257

Zariah Hawkins

July 30, 2020 - July 20, 2021

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