Story Created:
Mar 14, 2007 at 9:38 PM MST
Story Updated:
May 23, 2007 at 12:09 PM MST
A special fund set up in loving memory of Jayden Delcua now has reached more than $74,482.64. The goal is to reach $100,000.
CLICK HERE to Donate to the American Heart Association
"Can you smile?" Jeremy Deluca playfully asks his two-year-old daughter that question from behind a home video camera.
"I love you," he says to her.
You see, the girl's big smile makes her parents' hearts melt every time.
For her daddy, his little girl is a dream come true.
"A daddy's girl," he says. And what father doesn't want a daddy's girl.
And like most daddy-daughter relationships, it's hard to tell sometimes who can be more child-like.
"Can you say fart?" He asks her from behind the camera. Now, what dad can't relate to that.
But then, just two weeks ago, came their worse nightmare. Two days after the home video was taken, Jayden Deluca passed away.
"I just got a call, an emergency phone call over the intercom from Saint Luke's," Jeremy says. "And I picked up the phone, and the guy just saying 'you need to get down here as quick as you can. we're doing CPR on your daughter to try and keep her alive."
You see, the girl who's smile melted their hearts, had a bad heart.
"I mean she loved everybody," says Jeremy. "I mean she made such an impact in so many people's lives."
Jayden's mother, Karalie Deluca, still can't get herself to take the wrist band from the hospital.
"It's like the last thing that someone gave me that connected me to her," Karalie says.
"I did get to say good-bye to her that morning when I went to work, and her last words to me were 'wuv daddy," says Jeremy.
Jayden was born with just a single ventricle heart. Her first open heart surgery was just six days after she was born. And she had a condition called pulmonary hype-tension.
"Her arteries were closing up on her or narrowing down," says Jeremy.
Her little heart just couldn't take it anymore.
"I think my favorite quality was just her spirit," says Karalie.
And they'll tell you that Jayden really had a heart of gold.
"You couldn't look at Jayden and ignore her," says Karalie. She had just this over-powering joy and love and spirit that just captured everyone that she met."
Now, the Delucas are hoping to help others.
"Our goal is to reach $100,000," says Jeremy.
They're trying to raise money for the American Heart Association.
"If we can raise enough money to make the difference in one person's life, than I think it was all worth it," says Jeremy. "And she made a difference."
"People have always asked me, and I've always said that I think no matter what that Jayden has a purpose," Karalie says. "And she will make a huge impact in someone's€™s life."
They're making sure her memory and spirit lives on.
"Oh, she made me beyond proud," says Karalie. "So, I was the luckiest person in the world that i got to be her mom."
So, the Delucas need your help. Really, other children with heart problems need your help.
A special fund has been set up in memory of Jayden.
CLICK HERE to Donate to the American Heart Association