Lily Mae was born November 29, 2022. She came into the world a chunky little girl. Right from the beginning she always had a love for food. She was mesmerized by her sissy and bubba since meeting them. She tried her hardest to skip straight to solid foods but didn’t mind taking her time to learn how to walk. For a while we lived with Nana and there Lily made her Nana’s counter a special place. Every morning Lily would have her picture taken on the counter and then pictures of her and sissy together in the front yard. Lots of dance parties happened at Nana’s. When she started daycare she met her best friend Daisy. They became the flower girls. Eventually we moved and Lily got her own room with her sissy.She had a big girl bed and made sure she slept in every crazy position she could.  Lily loved dressing up in her sissy clothes and stealing her sissy’s toys. Every night she would try to sleep in sissy’s bed and sneak extra hugs from her mommy and mama (stepdad but she called him mama). She quickly found her new person in her stepdad. They did everything together, from watching Shrek to him giving in to her every whim of snacks she wanted. She would run in to wake him up everyone morning and squeeze in some morning cuddles. She was serious about her milk and school would call me to always inform me of when she was low because she would always be so mad when they ran out. Lily Mae loved water. She was eager to learn how to swim. We started with baby floats and wean to arm floats. She was a natural, she learned how to float with her arm floats and was practicing swimming with a pool noodle whenever we would visit gpa. Lily gained confidence and would even jump off the ladder into the pool but always under adult supervision with someone right there to get her. Pool safety is a necessity for small children and unfortunately pool safety wasn’t a priority at her dads/grandmas house. During Hurricane Helene I made the decision to send my babies to their dads because we were in the hit zone and I thought his house would be the safest. After losing our new home and trying to salvage what we could I got the phone call no mother wants to get. My sweet Lily was being life flighted due to drowning. Lily Mae suffered a traumatic brain injury due to the lack of oxygen from being in the pool for 10 minutes. She passed away in my arms on October 1,2024. Lily Mae was tragically taken due to the lack of pool safety. She was left in the care of her paternal grandma. The ladder was still up even though the pool was not in use, there was no fence around the pool, and the screen door and sliding door had no working locks. My babies were left alone long enough they got out, played with sunblock to the point it was all over the porch, the dogs, and yard. My sweet Lily then went into the pool. Her big sister witnessed it all. During this time the grandmother was on the phone with their father who asked how were the girls? As he was dropping off their brother. The grandma said they were fine but never actually checked on them as she was in her room for over 10 mins. When the grandma saw one of the dogs come in covered in sunblock she went looking for the girls and discovered our oldest on the pool ladder and when she asked where is Lily? Our oldest said she’s at the bottom of the pool. My sweet Lily was taken from us due to neglect. The lease stated no pools were allowed and a permit was never granted for one either. No pool safety was provided and nothing stopped my little girls from getting outside. Lily Mae may have been taken tragically from us but she has provided life and hope for others. Lily Mae gifted her kidneys to someone who was living on dialysis. Her heart valves are still waiting for their forever home. Her lungs were gifted to USF to be studied. I hope her gifts can be memorized as she is a guardian angel now and watches over us and those she has gifted life too. Please remember my daughter whenever your around a pool and have little ones. Thank you.