The family of a six-and-a-half-year-old Sandy Hook Elementary School student killed in Friday's shootings plans on establishing a music scholarship in memory of the girl who loved to sing.
Jimmy Greene, a music professor at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, also asked that other consider selfless acts of kindness to help cherish the memory of his daughter, Ana Grace Marquez-Greene, who was among 19 children who died in the Newtown shootings.
In a statement from Greene issued through the university, he said his daughter showed a love of singing even before she could talk. With the statement, Greene also shared a video of his daughter singing as her brother, Isaiah, plays the piano.
Here is the text of the family's statement:
It is with immeasurable grief and heavy-heartedness that we mourn the loss of our precious angel, Ana Grace Marquez-Greene. She was taken from us far too soon in the horrific massacre enacted upon Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday morning December 14, 2012. She was 6 ½ years old.
In her short life, Ana strengthened us with her loving, generous joyful spirit. She routinely committed selfless acts of kindness: every drawing or craft project she began was envisioned not for her own enjoyment, but as a gift for another. She often left sweet notes that read, “I love you Mom and Dad,” under our bedroom pillow – not on special occasions, but, rather, on ordinary days. She would not allow me to kiss her goodbye. Instead, when I bent down to kiss her, she would take a step backwards, poke out her lips and wait for me to lower my cheek -she made it clear that she wanted to do the kissing.
Ana’s love for singing was evident before she was even able to talk. In a musical family, her gift for melody, pitch and rhythm stood out remarkably. And she never walked anywhere – her mode of transportation was dance. She danced from room to room and place to place. She danced to all the music she heard, whether in air or in her head. Ana loved her God, loved to read the Bible and loved to sing and dance as acts of worship.
We ask that you pray for the legions of people who are left behind to cherish memories of her. We also ask that you, like Ana, commit selfless acts of kindness to all those around you. Maybe, in some way, through love, similar senseless acts of violence could be prevented. Funeral arrangements will be announced soon. In lieu of gifts and flowers, the family is working to establish scholarships in Ana’s name at Western Connecticut State University’s Department of Music in Danbury, CT, and the Artist’s Collective in Hartford, CT.
