TORONTO – “She will donate as many organs as she can to help as many families as she can.” These are the brave words of a Winnipeg father whose little girl with a wide smile and tiny voice died in hospital following a car crash.
Since Dec. 30, Ho Lau has been chronicling his family’s ordeal following an afternoon car crash in the U.S. that left his three-year-old daughter, Evelyn, in hospital.
By New Year’s Day after sleeping by Evelyn’s side in a Minneapolis hospital, Lau learned that his daughter had lost function in her brain.
“We don’t want to have families go through our situation we are facing. This is what Evelyn would’ve wanted. She is the most loving and caring person I know,” Lau wrote on his caringbridge.org website.
“Her final gift to the world is her healthy organs.”
Local reports out of Winnipeg say that the little girl was declared dead later that day.
On Dec. 28, the Laus and their family friends were heading to Minneapolis for a winter break where they’d visit museums, water parks and an aquarium, Lau wrote.
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Shortly after crossing a border, the Lau family’s van was rear-ended by a semi-trailer truck, but they walked away unscathed. Lau caught a ride to a hotel in Grand Forks, while his wife and daughter joined the other family in their truck.
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“While waiting in the hotel lobby, minutes turned to hours and the unthinkable began to race in my mind,” Lau wrote. He received a call from the ER.
Karla Mackenzie, 33, died in the crash. Poor visibility is being blamed for the crash, police say.
Lau’s wife Allie was also in hospital “full of pain,” he wrote.
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While she stayed in hospital, their daughter was moved to a children’s hospital six hours away for better care. Ultimately, Allie was sent to her daughter where they could spend time together – the nurses and doctors even moved Evelyn to her mother’s bed so they could snuggle one last time, Lau wrote.
“Evelyn always had an ability to light up a room, as many would agree, her smile was model caliber and her tiny voice and their funny inflections could melt anyone,” Lau wrote.
“Her light isn’t allowed to shine as bright on Earth but her light will forever shine down as a star,” the father said in his last post.
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
Follow @Carmen_Chai
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