Boy takes sister to prom to fulfill her dying wish — she passes away just two days later
Just when a story had the potential to tug at the heartstrings, we were sucker-punched. This eighth grader's biggest dying wish was to enjoy a prom experience, something that wasn't likely to happen for her. When her brother came across this paper, he offered to make her dream come true.
Janea and Josh Aguilera were siblings and fast friends with a lot of love between them. When Janea was 12 years years old, she came down with an extremely dangerous disease. In 2012, she was officially diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a kind of cancer that spreads aggressively and needs brutal treatments. For Janea, it was having one of her legs amputated. For the following two years, she remained cheerful and was living her life normally, when there was a remission. Coming back in 2014, her cancer became more aggressive than it was before. So a while before she had her leg amputated and now she was living with a fatal disease with no cure.
Before her life came to a standstill though, she decided that she would make a list of all the things she would do. A bucket list full of wishes. One of them was going to prom. Fates aligned and her brother was just preparing to go to his own prom and when he saw the list, he promptly made an offer to go with her. “She was just like ‘oh my gosh, are you serious?’ And then she started crying,” Josh explained. “And of course, it hit me, and I started crying.” Of course, with an eighth grader going to prom, it was expected that there would be some special permission that should be taken. Fortunately, without any hurdles, they were allowed to go this way. The duo showed up to his school, doused in excitement and happiness, and to top it all off, Janea was also crowned Prom Princess that day.
After a gleaming high, there was a crashing fall, when Janea passed away just two days after the Prom. On April 28, 2014, the Aguilera family had to say goodbye to their child who never got to live a full life but fulfilled her biggest wish, Denver7 reported. Everyone in Lamar, Colorado, where the Aguilera family lives, knows about Janea. In fact, about a third of the town showed up to her memorial service. "It made us proud to say, 'I'm from Lamar'," Janea's cousin revealed to 11 Alive. Her brother Josh said, "She was a good person and she definitely brought the community together." Apart from this memorable service, she was also known as the millennium baby of the town. Which means that she was the first person born in the year 2000 in that town. At her memorial service, her dad revealed, "When she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a childhood bone cancer, it was difficult to take because it was out of my control." His emotional speech, heard by over a third of the town, concluded with tears and the heartbreaking message, "I love you forever and always, Janea. You will forever be in my heart."