Only thirteen short days after Brody died by suicide. Grief never goes away; however, the grief wasn’t consuming my every thought because I kept myself busy with dance and gymnastics, so my mind wouldn’t focus on losing Brody as much. After getting home from a long day of dance, I relaxed on the couch and opened Facebook on my phone. The first thing I saw was a post that read “Today, Jesus met the most beautiful girl in the world.” I read that about ten times, just trying to comprehend what it meant. Sadly, it meant one thing: Kennedy had died and had left her earthly body. She isn’t suffering from depression anymore. She is with our heavenly father and isn’t hurting.

I met Kennedy through the Miss Arkansas’ Outstanding Teen Organization. I needed a car for the 2020 Christmas parade in Jacksonville; she dropped all her plans, drove over an hour from home, and let me use her car in the parade. She was my driver. It was a blast spending time with her. After the parade, we also went to the Arkansas State Capitol Christmas Lighting Ceremony with our friend Tori. Oh, how we had such a fun time. We were looking forward to competing together in the Miss Arkansas’ Outstanding Teen competition the next summer. Sadly, we never got the opportunity to do so. Instead, all of us teen contestants wore teal and purple ribbons on our clothes in memory of the sweet girl who lost her life. Kennedy was such a bright light; she had a servant's heart and did everything out of kindness. When talking to her, you would never know that she was struggling with her mental health issues because she always had a smile on her face.