Adaea Joan Smart
November 29, 2012 – January 1, 2019
Adaea, a beautiful young girl who made a lasting impact on everyone that knew her. We have created the Adaea Smart legacy fund to continue making an impact in her name in the lives of those who knew her and those you didn’t have the privilege of meeting her.
Adaea was born in Victoria and brought to the world a joy her parents didn’t know was possible. She was long and lean from the start and had the most captivating eyes. She wasn’t your classic smiley baby but she would draw you in with her dark almond eyes and use her long arms to embrace her loved ones with incredible hugs. Adaea enjoyed her time with her four legged companion, a yellow lab named Calla, but was over the moon when her little brother and best friend, Alden, was born just after her second birthday.
Adaea had a love of the water that grew with each new place she could swim. She didn’t let cold temperatures keep her away and could be found swimming in the ocean by her house. There is a picnic table overlooking this beach that we hope you can visit. It is to the right of the big whale at the Oak Bay Marina.
Adaea loved music and you would often find her grooving along in her own unique style of dance. She loved her summer camp dance classes with little recitals at the end where her family would come watch, and bring flowers. It was such a joy to watch Adaea move her body without any inhibitions. She really did dance like no one was watching!
Adaea started kindergarten at St. Patrick’s elementary in September 2017. Even though she had a late birthday there was no doubt she was ready to take on kindergarten. She loved her time there, had an amazing teacher, and made lots of friends.
Shortly after her 5th birthday, which was spent in DisneyLand, Adaea was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She was immediately admitted to BC Children’s Hospital in Vancouver. The original treatment was 5 months of intensive chemotherapy during which she would remain an inpatient for the majority of this time. Adaea didn’t ask a lot of questions and adapted to life in hospital as seamlessly as anyone could hope. She wanted to get home to Alden and Calla but understood we had to listen to the experts for this to happen. Adaea responded well to the initial treatments and by Spring she was home and in remission. Life returned to a new normal which wasn’t all that different from life before. Adaea didn’t want to miss out on anything now that she was home. Unfortunately, she couldn’t return to school because chicken pox was going around and in addition to getting rid of all the “bad cells” the chemo wiped her of all her vaccinations.
We had a wonderful summer including a trip to Edmonton to see family, 5 days at Camp Goodtimes Family Camp, endless visits to her favourite beach and local parks, and time on Salt Spring at our family property. In August we noticed Adaea was more tired again and at the end of August Adaea relapsed and was immediately admitted back at BC Children’s. She was able to continue (somehow) her swimming lessons, hours before returning to Vancouver, pushing through and doing what she loved. We knew this next round was going to be more challenging.
Adaea’s time at Children’s hospital was so much more than just receiving chemotherapy medicine. The hospital has created this incredible space where kids have fun when you wouldn’t think it was possible. There is a program called Child Life which has the loveliest volunteers, many in the nursing program. It is run by such passionate people that are committed to bringing as much joy as possible during a family’s most difficult time. Music therapy was a highlight for Adaea. She could again move her body the way it felt good while being supported by a wonderful therapist.
We are so grateful for all of these amazing people that helped Adaea and us through an impossible time. We want to use the Adaea Smart Legacy fund to add to these opportunities and programs. For the last 5 years we have donated Lego Advent Calendars to all the inpatients (30 rooms) on Adaea’s birthday and brought in Adaea’s favourite meal to these families, McDonalds chicken nuggets and fries.
We know first hand what is most helpful while living in the hospital and we want to use this experience to help future families in our position. I think there is a gap in parent support that at the time I didn’t notice as we were so fortunate to have not only amazingly supportive families but also a community that came together to help us get through our time there. We want to help fill in this gap. The Adaea Smart Legacy fund will directly help families like us. We look forward to sharing this impact with you so you can see the difference your donation has made. We know that the number one goal of all of these parents is to ensure their children are cared for but we want to ensure these parents are also being cared for. Whether it is a Starbucks gift card, a pass to a local yoga or mindfulness class, access to talk therapy, and other options. As a society we are so much more knowledgeable on the impacts of mental health on our well being than in the past. Regardless of the circumstances after their time in hospital we know first hand all parents will have some PTSD from this. There is nothing that can prepare you for those words, “your child has cancer” but we think we can do more to help once they have.
Please help us honour Adaea by making an impact where we feel it is so necessary.
