The most painful experience for a parent is watching your child die, knowing that there’s nothing you can do to help. My husband and I are living through this nightmare right now.

When our daughter Harper was born in 2017, we knew she was special. Our first and only daughter, my husband and I were over the moon for her arrival. I knew that she would be a tough cookie -- but she has been tougher than we ever imagined.

Harper was born with 2q37 Deletion Syndrome, an extremely rare chromosomal abnormality. Most of the children affected by this disease have little to no ability to communicate and struggle with social interaction. Our little fighter beat those odds to become a force in our family, knowing how to wrap all of us around her tiny fingers. She was deaf and blind but was able to communicate with us using sign language. Our princess was one of the brightest pieces of our jigsaw puzzle life.

Now our little fighter faced and lost the biggest challenge of all our lives. This past week, our beautiful little girl contracted COVID-19 and developed RSV. When I brought our baby girl to the hospital, I thought we had reached the bottom and things would look up from there. Since we’ve been here, she has gotten sicker and sicker, unable to breathe on her own, and finally, has been placed on a ventilator. I looked at my only daughter only to see that she was just not there anymore. Yesterday afternoon, the doctor confirmed my worst fear -- Harper was not going to be coming home with us. This morning, she took her last breath as I held her in my arms.

My husband and I didn’t expect the day for us to say goodbye to Harper would come so quickly. With Harper’s three brothers at home, our family doesn’t have the resources available to provide a funeral for our little fighter. Please help us to pay respects to our little girl and put our fighter to rest. We are humbly asking for donations of any amount in order to pay for funeral services for our little girl. She was taken from us too soon, and our only comfort is in knowing that she is in a better place now. Please help us say goodbye and lay her to rest.