Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) Awareness Week: Remembering Alysha’s Journey with CHD
“A WEIGHTED HEART”
Written by Jody Bencharski
There is no shortage of positive things to say about Alysha. I want to express my thanks to the Oliphant family for allowing me to spend so much time with her.
The age gap between us was significant but I can easily say that she was one of my friends. I looked out for her and she looked out for me. I will miss her constant text messages to remind me to do all sorts of stuff, we used to laugh and refer to her as Kelsi and I’s secretary. Having a workout session with Alysha was always something that I looked forward to. She always had so much to tell me about Kelsi, sports, her parents, our “UP” band stats, school, weekend plans etc. We would often take over the personal training studio to blast country music while she worked out.
At our last Heartbeats event I had the opportunity to push Alysha in her wheel chair for the 5KM (picture below) and I was so honored to do so. This picture is a significant one because it was the last time that we were together. We had to stop once to drain her lung fluid bag. I didn’t fully grasp the severity of her condition at the time because she was so talkative and bubbly, like usual.
Before the run we made sure she had a GoodEarth hot chocolate in her hand (she informed me that they are WAYYYY better than the ones from Starbucks), she laughed at our participation in the warmup, then once we were on the trail she facetimed her favorite person in the world, Kelsi, and called her Dad. She loved her family so much! Never had anything negative to say about them. We talked all about her plans for school and how she had so many gift certificates to spend. The following month when I found out about her passing truly rocked me.
My deepest sympathies go out to all who feel the loss of this wonderful Angel. I believe that she is running around, care-free in Heaven, feeling an abundance of love from each of us, a tennis racket in her hand, country music blasting, with Subway sandwiches and hot chocolate awaiting her game breaks.
Alysha will always have a place in my heart. The world is really missing out!
Love, Jody
