Her bright eyes sparkled. Her smile and laugh was infectious. Her spirit motivated everyone who was lucky enough to know her. Her love of K-POP, fashion and Harry Potter was unwavering, as was her dedication to her friends and family. Looking at Laya Westbrooks, no one would have guessed the battle she silently fought.
Tondelaya "Laya" JerRyae Westbrooks, 21, of Jefferson City, died Aug. 25 due to complications from sickle cell disease.
Now, her loved ones have created a GoFundMe page. Organizer Amy Vossman-Schwartze started the page in order to help defray some of the costs of Westbrooks' medical care and burial costs. The webpage can be found at www.gofundme.com/ffdes8.
She was born May 22, 1995, to Toni Westbrooks-Taylor and Jerry L. Westbrooks. When she was nearly a year old, Westbrooks was diagnosed with sickle cell disease. Her mother said she lived a very happy childhood with no chronic pain or the commonly associated swelling of hands many experience.
However, when she was 4, she experienced her first "crisis" and first hospital stay. She also had the first of many strokes she would experience in her brief lifetime.
"This first episode was also the first time we thought we might lose her," Westbrooks-Taylor said. "We were unsure of the outcome, if she woke up. But she did, and as I ran into the room after she opened her eyes, she looked at me, her father and the nurses and said, 'Woo, I need some make-up'."
She experienced repeated hospital stays until she was about 8 years old, but after starting transfusions she seemed to be in better health for several years. Westbrooks-Taylor noted Laya was the first child at the University of Missouri to receive a double-lumen port for the blood transfusions she needed.
"This was a huge deal for us, for her," her mother recalled. "The process would take out the sickle cell blood and replace it with fresh blood. It was vital in the good years she had."
From about the age of 9 until she was 16, she had fewer hospitalizations and lived a fairly regular life.
She had friends in abundance and always had a positive word for others.
She attended High Point School until eighth grade, where she played volleyball, as well as clarinet in the band and participated in cheerleading. While at High Point, she was allowed to participate with the Russellville Special Olympics through track and field, bowling and basketball. She was also High Point's homecoming queen one year.
Westbrooks then attended Jefferson City High School, where she was in speech and debate. She was passionate about fighting for people's rights, and she loved standing up for the underdog. After graduating high school in May 2013, she attended the University of Central Missouri and Lincoln University, until frequent hospital stays made it impossible to keep up with her course work.
"Over the last year-and-half or two years, the longest she went without a hospital stay was a month," Westbrooks-Taylor said. Despite frequent hospital stays, Westbrooks never lost the sparkle in her eyes or her focus on the mission her family shared. "I, we, firmly believe that you are put on this Earth to make it better, to have a positive impact.
"Even now, in Laya's death, I like to think of what she has accomplished."
Westbrooks-Taylor and her husband hold an annual fundraiser at their business, DODECA Events, to raise money for the University of Missouri's Sickle Cell Anemia Food Ticket Program. Last year, they raised enough money to purchase 220 meals.
"I know how it feels to be in the hospital and starving," she said. "The last thing a parent should have to worry about is how they are going to eat when they are in the hospital trying to help care for their sick child."
Westbrooks lived her life as though she was not sick, many never knew she was ill until she told them. Her mother said this was part of her mission - to make this world a better place.
Elizabeth Kelly was Westbrooks' suite mate at the University of Central Missouri. "We've been friends since (college). I knew she had sickle cell because she told me soon after we became friends," Kelly said. "But I forgot she had it a lot of the time because she never really showed that she was in pain and never let it hold her back."
Since her health had been improving, Westbrooks was re-enrolling in classes at Lincoln University and was planning to become a speech pathologist and work in South Korea, where she loved the people and the culture.
Sadly, she never made it - Westbrooks passed away during a recent hospital stay.
In a Facebook post, Westbrooks-Taylor said she was able to be with her daughter at the end.
"Before she died," the post reads, "I got a chance to hear her say 'I love you,' even when she could barely breathe. I got a chance to talk about things with her, silly things that didn't matter because she just wanted to hear my voice. I got a chance to tell her I was sorry for being so hard on her, and I got the chance to be forgiven in the most loving way."
Westbrooks also told her mother she was a great mom. To that Westbrooks-Taylor said, "I couldn't ask for a better ending.
"I guess this is her legacy, this is a huge part of what she was meant to teach us all," Westbrooks-Taylor said. "I think part of her mission was to connect people back their loved ones - their people. Well, that and to look fabulous."
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