Brielle “Brie” Bird has passed away at just 9 years old, ending a courageous battle with stage-4 cancer that moved thousands of people around the world. Her mother, Kendra Bird, confirmed the heartbreaking news, sharing that Brielle died quietly the day before the announcement — peacefully, surrounded by love.
In a message filled with both grief and reverence, Kendra described her daughter as a miracle — not because of how long she lived, but because of how deeply she lived.
“Her life carried spiritual weight,” Kendra wrote. “She restored faith. She changed hearts. And she fulfilled her purpose.”
A journey that inspired thousands
Brielle was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 2020, a diagnosis that immediately altered the course of her childhood. What followed were years of treatment, setbacks, moments of hope, and stretches of unimaginable pain. Yet through it all, those closest to Brielle say her spirit never dimmed.
Even as the disease progressed and Brielle entered hospice care earlier this year, her strength remained constant. She continued to show kindness, patience, and a quiet peace that many adults spend a lifetime searching for.
Her story spread far beyond her family. Strangers prayed for her. Children drew pictures for her. Adults found themselves rethinking faith, suffering, and what it means to live fully — even in the face of loss.
“Her purpose was fulfilled”
Kendra Bird has been open about the way she understands her daughter’s passing — not as an ending, but as a completion.
“She did what she was meant to do,” Kendra shared. “She brought people back to faith. She reminded them what love looks like.”
In the days following Brielle’s passing, Kendra says the family now looks for her in small, meaningful signs — especially dragonflies, which have come to symbolize Brielle’s presence and peace. Each sighting feels like a whisper rather than a goodbye.
Brielle’s bedroom door remains open.
The playroom light stays on.
There will always be space for her.
An outpouring of love
Tributes poured in almost immediately after the news became public. Among them was a message from Viola Davis, who wrote that Brielle’s passing left her in both grief and gratitude — calling the young girl a profound reminder of love, faith, and spiritual courage.
Fans, supporters, and families who followed Brielle’s journey echoed similar sentiments. Many said her story changed how they pray. Others said it changed how they parent. Some said it simply changed how they see suffering — and grace.
More than a diagnosis
To those who loved her, Brielle was never defined by cancer. She was laughter. Curiosity. Gentle wisdom beyond her years. A child who made room for joy even in hospital rooms.
Her family says they will continue to honor her life not only by remembering her fight, but by living out the faith she embodied so naturally.
“Love doesn’t end,” Kendra wrote. “It transforms.”
A legacy that remains
Though Brielle’s life was brief, her impact was not. Her story continues — in the prayers she inspired, the faith she rekindled, and the quiet courage she modeled without ever trying to be brave.
She leaves behind grief, yes — but also light.
And for those who knew her story, every dragonfly will now mean something more.
👉 The full story, including Brielle’s final moments and the meaning behind the dragonflies, is in the comments below.
HH. She spent most of her life fighting a disease no one could cure — until her body simply could not fight anymore.
Annaliese Holland had spent so much of her twenty-five years inside hospital walls that the world outside sometimes felt like a distant dream.
For most people her age, life was only beginning — full of first jobs, first homes, new loves, weddings, babies, beginnings.
But for Annaliese, life had been a series of medical rooms, fluorescent lights, pain scales, IV poles, and days measured not in joy, but in how many crises she could survive before nightfall.
She had lived her whole life carrying a body that betrayed her.
A body that one day stopped digesting food.
A body whose nerves slowly died.
A body that refused to obey the simple commands needed to survive.
And she was tired — tired in a way that no rest and no medicine could cure.
Born and raised in Adelaide, South Australia, Annaliese had been a bright, warm child — sharp-witted, curious, endlessly polite.
Her parents used to joke that she “apologized for everything,” even for things that weren’t her fault.
But as she grew, her world began shrinking.
Hospitals became her second home by the time she was ten.
Doctors searched for answers but found none.
She grew up not with birthday parties or school dances, but with feeding tubes, scans, and pain she never fully understood.
By her teens, the symptoms multiplied.
Chronic pain.
Vomiting every day.
Constant nausea that stole her appetite and her joy.
At sixteen, she could no longer eat or drink enough to survive, and doctors placed her on total parenteral nutrition — TPN — artificial nutrition pumped directly into her bloodstream.
“It was like living on borrowed time,” she once said.
Every day on TPN came with the risk of infection.
Every infection risked sepsis.
And sepsis, if not caught in time, would kill her within hours.
She survived sepsis twenty-five times.
Twenty-five times her body was pushed to the brink, pulled back only by emergency intervention and her own stubborn will to live.
But every rescue left scars — organ damage, new weaknesses, deeper exhaustion.
Her spine fractured in four places.
Her sternum split open.
Her heart and lungs were nearly crushed.
Her bones, weakened by steroids, began dying from the inside out.
Her teeth blackened, loosened, and fell.
“It felt like my body was disappearing,” she said once, quietly.
“And I was disappearing with it.”
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
She does not fear the end.
She fears suffering.
She fears taking one more breath that feels like fire.
She fears the next infection that could torture her for hours before ending her life suddenly.
Having the choice means she has control — something illness stole from her long ago.
And now, for the first time in years, she feels calm.
Peaceful.
Like she is standing at the edge of a long, painful chapter, finally able to close it gently.
“I’m lucky,” she says.
“Not everyone gets to choose.
Not everyone gets to say goodbye the way they want.
I do.
And that means everything.”
When she turned eighteen and moved from paediatrics to adult care, doctors finally found the name for the monster destroying her life — autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy.
A rare neurological disease that attacked the nerves controlling the most basic human functions: heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, urination, temperature.
There was no cure.
No treatment.
Only the knowledge that it would get worse.
By twenty-two, she was told the truth no young woman should ever hear — her condition was terminal.
Her body was failing, slowly but surely.
Organ by organ.
System by system.
“Killed While Celebrating the Festival of Lights: Remembering Rabbi Eli Schlanger”.5685
On the evening of December 14, 2025, as the sun began to set over Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, a joyous Hanukkah celebration turned into a scene of unimaginable horror. Hundreds of people had gathered to take part in the “Hanukkah by the Sea” event, an annual celebration that brought together Jewish families to commemorate the festival of lights with music, food, and community. Among those in attendance was Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a 41-year-old rabbi, a beloved community leader, and a father of five young children. What was supposed to be a peaceful night of celebration soon became a tragic nightmare as two gunmen opened fire on the crowd, killing 15 people, including Rabbi Schlanger.
Rabbi Schlanger’s life was one of deep faith, devotion to family, and unwavering commitment to his community. He had just welcomed his fifth child, a son, only six weeks before the attack. His loss has left an indelible void in the lives of his wife, children, and the many people whose lives he touched. The event, which took place at one of Sydney’s most iconic beaches, sent shockwaves through the local Jewish community and beyond, leaving families devastated and searching for answers.
A Joyous Celebration Turned Tragic
The “Hanukkah by the Sea” event had been planned as a time for families to come together and celebrate the lighting of the menorah, a symbol of hope and resilience for the Jewish community. The celebration was meant to be a time of light during the long, dark days of winter, filled with the warmth of community and the joy of shared tradition. But on that evening, the darkness of tragedy overshadowed the light of Hanukkah.
At around 6:40 p.m., the joyous sounds of music and laughter were abruptly interrupted as gunshots rang out, shattering the peaceful atmosphere. Two gunmen, armed with semi-automatic weapons, opened fire on the crowd, targeting the unsuspecting attendees. Panic spread as people scrambled for safety, but the violence was swift and brutal. In the midst of the chaos, Rabbi Eli Schlanger was struck and tragically lost his life.
Those who were at the event remember the shock and horror of the attack. Many spoke of the initial confusion, the chaos that unfolded in an instant, and the deep sense of helplessness that gripped the crowd. People rushed to protect their loved ones, but the attackers were relentless, and 15 innocent lives were taken. Rabbi Schlanger, who had been a pillar of strength for his community, was one of the victims.
A Life of Service and Faith
Rabbi Schlanger was a man of great faith, a devout servant of the Jewish community who had dedicated his life to helping others. He was known for his kindness, his wisdom, and his ability to make others feel seen and valued. As a rabbi, he spent his days guiding his congregation, offering counsel, and nurturing the spiritual growth of those around him. His deep connection to God and his commitment to the Jewish people made him a beloved figure in the Sydney community.
But Rabbi Schlanger’s faith extended beyond his role as a spiritual leader. He was also a devoted father and husband, deeply committed to his family. He had recently welcomed his fifth child, a son, just six weeks prior to the attack. The joy of the new addition to their family was still fresh, and the Schlanger household was filled with the sounds of a growing family, full of love and laughter. Rabbi Schlanger’s death has left a profound hole in the lives of his wife and children, who are now left to navigate life without their father and husband.
His cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis, paid tribute to him in a heartfelt Facebook post, announcing his death and remembering his incredible character. “My dear cousin, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was murdered in today’s terrorist attack in Sydney,” Rabbi Lewis wrote. “He leaves behind his wife and young children, as well as my uncle and aunt and siblings. He was truly an incredible guy.” The post went viral, as people from all over the world expressed their condolences and shared memories of Rabbi Schlanger’s kindness, dedication, and warmth.
The Impact of Rabbi Schlanger’s Death
Rabbi Schlanger’s death has left the entire Jewish community in mourning, with tributes pouring in from people who knew him and those who were touched by his work. The loss of such a devoted and compassionate figure is not just a personal tragedy for his family, but a loss for the entire community. Rabbi Schlanger’s presence will be deeply missed by all who knew him.
In the wake of the attack, many have expressed shock and sorrow, grappling with the reality of the violence that occurred in a place that should have been safe. The Hanukkah celebration was meant to be a time of peace, and the fact that it was marred by such senseless violence has left people questioning the safety of their own communities. The attack serves as a reminder of the fragility of life and the importance of cherishing each moment.
The grief felt by Rabbi Schlanger’s family is immeasurable, and the community is rallying around them to provide support in any way they can. Friends, colleagues, and strangers alike have come forward to offer condolences, share stories of Rabbi Schlanger’s impact, and raise funds for his family’s future. The love and support being shown to his wife and children is a testament to the lasting legacy of Rabbi Schlanger’s life.
The Search for Justice
As the investigation into the attack continues, authorities are working to determine the motive behind the senseless act of violence. The gunmen responsible for the attack remain at large, and the Sydney Police Department has urged anyone with information to come forward. The community is anxiously awaiting answers, hoping for justice to be served for those who lost their lives in the attack.
The attack on Bondi Beach is a stark reminder of the ongoing threat of terrorism and the vulnerability of communities around the world. While the investigation continues, the focus remains on supporting the victims’ families and ensuring that justice is served for those who lost their lives in this tragic event.
A Community in Mourning
As the days pass since the attack, the community continues to mourn the loss of Rabbi Eli Schlanger. His death has left a deep wound, one that will take time to heal. But even in the midst of sorrow, the strength of the Jewish community in Sydney is evident. People are coming together to honor Rabbi Schlanger’s memory, to support his family, and to reaffirm their commitment to love, faith, and community in the face of tragedy.
Rabbi Schlanger’s life was one of service, love, and dedication. He leaves behind a legacy that will live on in the hearts of all who knew him. His faith, his family, and his community were the cornerstones of his life, and those who were touched by him will forever carry his memory.
As the Sydney community continues to mourn, they find comfort in the knowledge that Rabbi Schlanger’s life was one well-lived, full of love, kindness, and service to others. His death may have been senseless, but the impact he had on the lives of those around him is undeniable. Rabbi Eli Schlanger’s legacy will continue to inspire, even in the darkest of times.
