Elena Desserich was 5 years old when doctors gave her parents a number: 135 days to live.
She lived 121 days longer than expected. And she made the most of them in her own way. While fighting one of childhood’s most devastating brain cancers, she began hiding notes and drawings around her home in Cincinnati, Ohio, in bookshelves, CD cases, and sock drawers. Her father, Keith, found the first among some books and didn’t think much of it. Then 20 to 30 more turned up.
One was inside a bag of clothes put away for the winter: “I love you Mom and Dad”. Her grandparents received colorful, hand-drawn pictures. And an aunt found a note written for the Chihuahua Elena loved so much.
Elena died in 2007. Two years later, her parents compiled the diaries they had written and the girl’s notes in the book “Notes Left Behind”, originally intended only to help her younger sister, Grace, who was 4 during the illness, hold on to her memories.