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DANVERS -- Shiyanne Thornell liked hosting tea parties and putting stickers
all over her parents' faces. When she was just 2, she put on a backpack and announced that she was ready to go to school.
Above all, the little girl with dazzling blue eyes loved visiting the playground
at Endicott Park, where her mom would take her for play dates.
But late last month, after a bout of what first appeared to be the flu, 4-year-old
Shiyanne died at Children's Hospital in Boston.
Now her parents want to infuse Shiyanne's memory into Endicott Park for generations
to come. They've organized a fund to plant a tree and install a stone. But their long-range goal is to work with the town
to help refurbish the park playground.
"That was a place she really enjoyed, especially in the last year of her life,"
her mother, Joy Thornell, said.
Shiyanne died of encephalitis on Tuesday, July 26. Always a very healthy child,
Shiyanne became severely ill at her Chestnut Street home the weekend before.
"She had had the sniffles before, but never anything like this," Joy Thornell
said.
First, she suffered headaches, fevers and vomiting. Later, as her father, Don,
was putting her in her car seat to take her to the hospital, Shiyanne had a seizure. She was rushed from Beverly Hospital
to Children's Hospital in Boston, and she continued having seizures.
"She never stopped.The seizures were almost constant," her father said.
Doctors grimly told her parents the swelling on her brain was tremendous. Joy,
a professional birth coach, had been in Washington, D.C., at a conference. She rushed home to Boston to be by Shiyanne's side.
Her daughter's heart raced, only slowing down when her mother sang softly in
her ear. "And that's the only thing I can hold onto ... that she heard me singing," Joy Thornell said.
As she slipped away July 26, her parents and three older brothers,
Sky, Darian and Kyle, snuggled her in her hospital bed. "She was just a very sweet, good-natured girl," Joy said.
As the family struggled with the loss, they also faced many unanswered
questions. Doctors could not tell them what form of encephalitis Shiyanne died from. Blood samples were sent to a state lab
and to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga. Results are expected later this month, her parents said.
Hundreds would later attend Shiyanne's wake July 29, including
family, friends and neighbors. The Thornells said they were overwhelmed by how many lives Shiyanne touched during her short
life. A preschooler, Shiyanne attended the Riverside School. She was also a student at the Helene Joy Dance School in Middleton.
Friends and neighbors also dropped casseroles and cakes off at
the Thornells' home. Don, a systems administrator, started a new job at Home Health VNA in Lawrence three weeks before Shiyanne's
death.
"I had no time accrued," he said. "And they just told me, 'Take
all the time off you need and we'll pay for it,'" Don said. "They've been amazing."
Shiyanne would have turned 5 on Sept.
28. On that day, her parents hope to dedicate her tree at Endicott Park. They've selected a redbud, a tree known for its "big
fat" heart-shaped leaves, Joy said. When the tree flowers, it will display Shiyanne's favorite colors -- pink and purple.
Staff reporter Jill Harmacinski can be reached at (978) 338-2652 or by e-mail at jharmacinski@ecnnews.com.
Want
to help?
Donations in Shiyanne's name may be made to the Shiyanne Thornell Memorial Fund, care of Danversbank,
1 Conant St., Danvers, MA 01923.
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