Amanda's Story
Nov 27, 1996 – Oct 10, 2012
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Amanda was born on November 27, 1996. On that particular year, Vancouver BC got dumped with lots and lots of snow.
Amanda was also 10 days late in being born so when the doctor said ‘GO FOR A WALK’ to encourage her birth, it was to be done very carefully. As Amanda grew up, snow captivated her. I am not sure if that was because on the west coast of BC, we usually don’t get that much of it. Before every birthday, Amanda would do a 'weather watch' to see if there was snow in the forecast. There were indeed a few birthdays where it did snow some or lots. There is a clear memory of a story when Amanda was middle school aged. It was her birthday. She had about 8 friends at the house. It started to snow that night and everyone wanted to go outside. But no one was prepared with snow gear. We did manage to call up neighbours and friends to borrow clothing appropriate to the weather. This snow experience turned out to be full of fun and laughter. Although it was evening and dark, the snow brightened up the night. Needless to say, the outside fun was the hit of the party. As was the hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows and cookies at the end of the night. |
Fast forward to Amanda at 15, Carol started calling her daughter "Princess Snowflake"
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Just to tease her at first, and the Princess was because she was a typical teenage girl who wanted everything when she saw it advertised or in the store. Snowflake because she was born in a snowy winter.
And it’s IRONIC that on her last Christmas when we went out to buy our annual Christmas ornament together, she picked a purple snowflake. I remember her words as we hunted for the perfect ornament in the Christmas store. "I think we were in there for over an hour". (Now, Christmas stores are close to impossible for me to enter without being emotional.)" -Carol Todd |
Buy Snowflake Ornament
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So why did the name stick? Here's a conversation between Carol and Amanda...
Hello Amanda. |
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So from then on, She called her daughter Princess Snowflake. It was hard to ever imagine that the snowflake and what she called Amanada would spread around the world and be symbolic of so many things that would bring about a sense of strength, awareness and caring.
