Erica Gilmore's journey back home to us and Heaven

Hi, my name is Ivy Jansen and I'm fundraising for the arrangements and funeral/memorial for my best friend of 10 years, Erica Gilmore.

If you knew Erica, then you knew love. You knew real friendship, and you knew that you were about to have the most fun in your life. "Lighting up a room" doesn't even begin to describe Erica's effect on people. Between her beautiful smile, and heart of gold, there wasn't a better person on this planet, and we're all blessed and lucky to have known her.

Our days together were some of the best days of my life; even if it was just simply ordering tacos and watching Law and Order SVU, you'd leave feeling so much happier than when you showed up.

Erica wasn't just the woman she grew into. She was an adorable little girl, she was so friendly and sweet growing up. "Amazing" can't describe her high school years, that's when her dedication to working hard and always bettering herself really started to set in. I've lost count of her diplomas, she was always in some kind of school with dedication and pride. Her most recent feat was The Laser Institute.

To celebrate her soon graduation, a vacation was in order. Unfortunately, the tragic end to this story comes now. The most amazing woman was taken from us, and its not fair, its completely tragic and unacceptable, but there are things that need handling that are heavy and painful for her family. I'm partnering with Erica's father to not only get her home, on U.S. soil where she belongs, and then to give her the glorious send off she deserves and would be proud of. This isn't going to be easy, for any of us, but taking the financial stress and burden off of her family is such a high priority right now. We need to get her home as soon as possible.

Please donate whatever you can, Erica deserves the world. For a lot of us, she was the world.