6-Year-Old Girl with Brain Cancer Hid Love Notes for Her Parents to Find After Her Death

When 6-year-old Elena Desserich was diagnosed with brain cancer, she began hiding hundreds of little love notes around the house for her parents to find after she was gone. Here's the story:

Just before her sixth birthday, Elena Desserich (right) was diagnosed with brain cancer and given 135 days to live. She lived 255 days, passing away in 2007. After her death, Elena's parents, Brooke and Keith, found hundreds of notes from Elena hidden around the house -- in between CD cases, between bookshelves, in dresser drawers, in backpacks....

"It just felt like a little hug from her, like she was telling us she was looking over us"

Elena left hundreds of notes like these:


See more of Elena's notes

Elena's parents, Brooke and Keith Desserich, have now published these notes in a book called Notes Left Behind to fund a non-profit organization The Cure Starts Now dedicated to fighting pediatric brain cancer.

Link to story (book excerpt) over at Today | The Love Notes | Official Website

Ah, this broke my heart, but the story is too touching not to share. Excuse me while I, erhm, dry my eyes. Got dust in 'em or something.


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Some of you people are some cold blooded cynics. She hid them in books and CD cases, do you really think her parents would have found all of them before she died? Also their kid was dying, so maybe being total neat freaks wasn't their top priority at the moment.
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To the skeptics- do you even HAVE kids? They have the best hiding skills ever. Have you ever had a child in ICU? Yeah- not much time or energy left to do much of anything. Especially when traveling any distance to be by her side. Life can not simply 'go on as usual' the way you may think.

This is truly a heartwarming story. My condolences for their loss and may God bless them in their helpful endeavors.
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Someone here claim that she was a nurse and knew this was a hoax when she read the little girl was given 135 days to live. That they do not give you days to live. They go by 30 day months. If you do the math she was given 4 1/2 months which doctors will sometimes do. I guess it depends on the doctor. would not be cleaning out cd's and books while my daughter was dying. They may have found a couple notes while she as alive and thought they were the notes all kids make for their parents.

It' disgusting that people would be so mean. As for making money off of their dead child (yes they really lost their kid) can you imagine the medical bills they have to pay.
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I glanced at the story and then scrolled down and glanced at the comments, disgusting! People can be so cruel its outrageous. My daughter was diagnosed with brain cancer at the age of 5 months old, we were told it was curable and what not....she passed away one week before her 10 month birthday due to liver failure possibly caused by a common cold virus that went into her blood and attacked her liver...I signed off on her having a live biopsy and 72 hours later she went into full cardiac arrest, if my daughter could have left me 1 little note like this precious girl did it would have made my entire life! So why don't all you rude people be quiet because you obviously dont know what its like to have a child who has cancer
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ATTENTION ALL SKEPTICS & ACCUSORS:

First off, this little girl DID pass away. It just takes a little research to find these things out.

If you don't believe this little girl died, go to:

http://www.legacy.com/Obituaries.asp?Page=OBITFINDERSSIRESULTS.

Once you're there, type in her first and last name (Elena Desserich), leave the State field as is, and in the date range field select 2000-2009.

Her name was Elena Rosemary Desserich...and she was 7 when she passed.

Second: Unless you personally know this family or have some inside information/insight, you don't know for sure if they are telling the truth about the love notes or not...but does it hurt to believe a heartwarming story if for no other reason it might uplift grieving parents facing a similar situation?

It's amazing to me how some posters dispute this family's claims, yet blindly believe that everyone who comments on here is who they say they are and knows all the facts.

You all can believe what you want, but I've always found it best to believe and have faith as a child does and accept the occasional disappointments. To me it's a hell of a lot better way of moving through the world than to always be suspicious, accusatory, negative and hateful....which most would agree is a painful and depressing existence.
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