HUBER HEIGHTS MOTHER TURNS GRIEF INTO ACTION
Huber Heights resident honors son’s memory by helping other kids.
A Huber Heights mother whose young son died after a tragic pool accident is trying to honor his memory by fighting to help other children in the area.
Brandi Stoll watched her 3-yearold son, Hayden, lose the fight for his life in July. He fell into the fam- ily pool and was without oxygen for 20 minutes. After a week, Hayden’s family made the heartbreaking decision to remove him from life support.
“Christmas has been very hard ... I won’t lie. Every day is very hard,” Stoll said.
Now, she said her son is living on through the work in their community, done through her church, whose congregation worships inside the Wayne High School gymnasium each Sunday.
“I vowed to Hayden on his deathbed that I would help in any way I could to make one parent never feel this,” Stoll said. “If he can fight that fight, then I’m going to keep fighting in his memory. You never know what tomorrow’s going to bring.”
Stoll’s friend, Jennifer Phillips of Beavercreek, knows that all too well. Her daughter Ella was diagnosed with cancer and beat it.
“She had eight months where her hair started to grow back, and she was doing fantastic,” Phillips said of her daughter, who turned five and started kindergarten.
Then, just a couple months ago, Ella relapsed.
“I had a need to do something for my friend Jen and her little girl, Ella,” Stoll said.
So she went to her pastor at Engage City Church and asked what they could do.
Last weekend, the church delivered a “City Wish” winter wonderland for Ella and two other area children fighting cancer. For one magical evening, which included a special visit with Santa Claus, the children could forget their battles with cancer.
“Brandi took the worst experience that could ever happen to a mother, to a family, and she didn’t let it break her,” Phillips said. “She let it make her stronger. And through her grief she’s able to give hope and love to so many others.”