Emma Evelyn Ivanovsky is our 15 year old daughter who died tragically on August 10, 2015 in a tractor accident. Emma was visiting family and helping to take care of a ranch full of animals and her Great Grandmother in California. She left this Earth exactly how she lived, she was generous and fearless. Emma was an extraordinary “normal” girl, she loved reading and music, softball and basketball were her sports and she loved spending time with her family, especially “The Littles”, her younger siblings.
So many of Emma’s friends and family supporters have asked “What can we do to help?” While nothing will ever fix what has happened to our family, there IS something you can do to help.
Emma’s very favorite thing to do were random acts of kindness. Emma was generous and I am not even sure she realized it, it is just a part of who she was. She gave with her love, her time and her money. It could be anything from holding a baby she didn’t know for a frazzled mom to taking “The Littles” to The Candy House and using her own money. She loved asking me to buy groceries for a total stranger saying “Please Dad, I just think they could use a little help today!” She was really good at seeing what people needed and even more amazing at making that help happen through little kindnesses.
Here are a few things she did just in the last few months of her life; She gave her brother, Tucker $50 spending money the day he left on his trip to China, it was the last time he saw her. My new and very unique hat was chewed up by a dog and Emma went to the store we had bought it at and bought me a new one two days before she passed. Emma had saved almost $400 from babysitting and odd jobs over the Summer to buy souvenirs for “The Littles” at our end of the Summer trip to Universal Studios in Orlando, she died before she could go.
We are asking you to honor and help Emma be remembered by doing something that would make her happy. We want you to do anonymous acts of kindness in Emma’s name. We have always tried to be good examples to our children in the hopes that they would see how good it feels to brighten someones day or lighten their burden for a brief moment and see them smile. We knew Emma got it by how happy it made her to see people receive these little acts of kindness. We didn’t know how much she got it her until so many people and even her siblings shared stories of how Emma affected their lives with her own acts of giving and kindness.
We had so many kids come to her viewing or funeral tell us how special Emma made them feel and for a few they felt like Emma was their only friend. I don’t understand why she is gone, we need people like her here on Earth, Emma is truly good and her death is unbearable. We will spend our last breath building, growing and maintaining the legacy she only got to start. You can help us by printing off these cards to hand out when you have the opportunity to do something kind or generous for someone else.
Thank you and know that we love you for being kind #ForOurEmma.