READ JOE FITZGERALD ON BELLA BOND,

Her story will eventually fade from the headlines, as all such stories eventually do, and yet, in dying, little Bella Bond has reminded us of a truth too easily forgotten: Life is not only precious, but it’s sacred, too.

It’s “fearfully and wonderfully made,” the psalmist tells us, by its Creator, a title specifically chosen by the authors of our Declaration of Independence who understood the importance of faith in America.

Bella’s story is one that’s almost impossible to absorb, especially if you’ve ever embraced a child or grandchild her age and been on the receiving end of warm hugs and soft kisses.

If that’s you, looking at her picture makes you want to weep, doesn’t it?

It makes you want to cradle her and whisper everything will be OK.

And you can’t help wondering what her gifts, skills and talents might have been.

Born into mayhem, she surely didn’t have the best of beginnings, but history tells us all things are possible, childhood circumstances notwithstanding.

Born into dysfunction? Born of an unwed mother?

That was Leonardo da Vinci’s story.

That was the story of Frederick Douglass, the famed abolitionist.

It was the story of legendary French actress Sarah Bernhardt.

Bella Bond’s turbulent life on Maxwell Street in Dorchester contained great possibilities, too.

Richard Wagner, the German composer who revolutionized opera, had a single mother and no father to raise him.

So did Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. secretary of the treasury.

A rough start in life? They all experienced it, yet clearly possessed the stuff of something better. Perhaps Bella Bond did, too.

Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale,” rose above her barren beginnings to become one of the most celebrated sopranos of modern times.

Marilyn Monroe also overcame a childhood of emotional upheaval.

There’s an ancient axiom that tells of how the stone the builder rejected became the cornerstone.

Might Bella Bond have become one, too?

Across the pond an English chemist named James Smithson, denied nobility because of the circumstances of his birth, was so concerned about his legacy that he left his fortune “to found an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men,” specifying that it had to be built in America.

Today it’s known as the Smithsonian Institute.

When Hollywood honored him with a lifetime achievement award, Kirk Douglas quipped: “I had a great advantage over my children; I was born poor.”

So was Bella Bond, dead at 2 1⁄2.

But know this kiddo: You touched the hearts of millions; not many of us can say that.

God bless, sweetheart.