The doctor told them that their beloved little daughter, so full of life and love, had DIPG — a rare and aggressive brain tumor.
“We didn’t know what to do, where to go. We were told it’s pretty much a death sentence,” mother Casey told Daily Mail.
The family would suffer a tragedy and nightmare one would never wish on their worst enemy.
But for Zoey’s sake, they kept themselves together and tried to be strong. Over the following two years, Zoey would go through several treatments for her cancer.
The family found a clinic in Germany where Zoey responded well to radiation treatment. But after a while, she stopped responding.
She began to feel worse, faster. The unthinkable was about to happen.
On July 4, 2018, Zoey left this world peacefully in her home in the United States.
While her imminent death was naturally devastating for the family, her parents realized shortly before it occurred that they could share some precious final moments together.
Up until her final minutes, Zoey continued to spread joy. Her parents asked all relatives and friends to come home to them and see her before it was too late.
Now, her mother has bravely decided to share the family’s last moment together on Facebook.
“I shared it because even though it’s a painful moment, it’s a beautiful moment in our eyes,” Casey told Daily Mail.
The picture shows mom and dad with their arms around their precious daughter.
They’d sat down on the couch with the family’s dog. They’d spent the day to singing Disney songs. A Harry Potter movie played on television. And amidst the peace, the calmness, Zoey was suddenly gone.
After about half the movie, Zoey’s heart stopped beating.
“I had seen a handful of families sharing moments and originally I didn’t think I was going to share it. ‘But I thought: “I want a photo like that taken”. I want those moments captured so I can remember them forever even when my brain is gone,” she told Daily Mail.
On the Facebook page Zoey’s Light, the family now wants to spread the hope and light that Zoey gave the world all those years before her death. They want Zoey to inspire others to help each other, and to love each other fully, gratefully — one ordinary day at a time.
