Memorial Services for Mia

On Friday June 1st tragedy struck our family and heaven gained an angel. Cara Mia is my niece and she was only 18 years old. She was greeted at Heavens gate by my daughter Alexis. My brother Jeff, his wife Tammy and Mia's mother Meg are now faced with the expense of laying their sweet girl to rest. Unfortunately there will not be any life insurance to help cover the costs, and time is of the essence. Please help me lift this burden for them. How he is going to pay for her service should be the last thing he needs to be worried about. Thank you in advance for anything you can offer. Mia's mom wrote this so eloquently: Our Cara Mia, a.k.a. Peanut, a.k.a. Olivia Jay, was always searching for adventure and connection.  As a baby, she would wake up joyful in her crib, arms outstretched, and as a small child she would climb as high as she could and make friends with everyone she encountered.  She was my curly-headed, munchkin-voiced sidekick.  She was tenacious and only obeyed the rules if they served her purpose, and sometimes got away with breaking them because she was so adorable.  She churned out poems, journals, drawings and music and loved to be onstage.  Projects rarely got completed but were remarkable in their beginnings. Mia started to show more serious signs of mental illness toward the end of middle school.  For awhile, her life was an intersection between normal parts of adolescence and symptoms that were gradually worsening despite treatment.  Then, her illness took her off the beaten path altogether.  Recently, it seemed like she was inching back toward what would have been a tremendously long road to recovery.  But parts of Mia's illness involved weathering breath-taking emotional pain and feeling that she was alone and unlovable.  Many crises passed, but her final one didn't.  We all wish we could have protected her.  She tried her best, and we did, too.  There was so much pain in mothering Mia, but also the kind of joy that is radiant and visceral,  the kind that causes you to remember in real time that you are thrillingly alive. I love you bigger than outer space, Peanut.