Mikayla Michelle Cain

It started out like any other happy Monday morning. Mikayla loved the Mondays that she went to school, because her daddy had those days off and could take her and eat with her. She of course was the last one to get up because she hated mornings and hated getting up. She would sleep in as late as she could.

Most of the time I had to dress her while she would still sleep. But this day she got right up and let me dress her. She put on her little pink jeans and a teddybear long sleave shirt. Then set out the task of combing out her curly hair. A task she didn't like much. And of course she had to put on her new ruby red shoes she got for Christmas from grandma Martha.

We couldn't get those shoes off her. She had worn the glitter off the toes already and she only wore them a couple weeks. I would have to take them off of her after she would fall asleep. She loved those shoes and the Wizard of Oz. She was happy her daddy was going to eat lunch with us. Patrick was up and ready to go as well. We headed out the door and set out for school.

I was so lucky because I got to take her to work with me everyday. I worked in family services at her preschool. Dad dropped us off at work and promised to come back early and eat lunch with her. He then took Patrick to school and went home. She had a wonderful day at school. It started out with me enrolling a new family for the preschool so I had to miss eating breakfast with her.

She of course didn't want to eat either then and stayed in the office to help me do the enrollment. She was so professional and stacked all the papers and acted like the little secretary she loved to be.

Finally I got her to go and do the singing and dancing after breakfast and went to work. She loved playing in the book area and reading books to the other children. She spent alot of the day Playing with play dough and helping Mrs. Terri put the tricycles away. She bragged that her daddy was coming to eat lunch with her like he always did on Mondays.

I remember walking through the classroom while I was working and stopped to kiss her and ask her what she was making out off playdough. Of course she was making cookies to bake. I smiled and kissed her again and let her play, going back to work.

Around 11:00 I went back out to her classroom to eat lunch with her like I always did. Her daddy showed up and she was so excited. We sat down at her table and she served her food but didn't eat much. We were having baked fish, not one of her favorites. And of course if daddy wouldn't eat it, she wasn't going to either.

After lunch she brushed her teeth and got ready to go home with dad. She wanted to go back to my office and get papers because she loved to play office at home. I told her I didn't have any papers and she wasn't happy with me. Angry she made dad carry her out to the car as I kissed her quickly and went back to work.

The day went by quickly and I had planned on going home a little early but we had a staff meeting. We were at our staff meeting that didn't last to long and even discussed Mikayla's little red sparkly shoes she wore that day.

I went back to my office after the meeting to get ready to go and finish anything up when a co-worker came into my office and said I had an emergency phone call. I laughed, and she said "no, really". I picked up the phone and it was Harvey, he was paniced and sounded really scared. He said "Get home, Mikayla had an accident! She isn't breathing."

I almost dropped the phone but yelled back for him to call an ambulance and he said he already had. I dropped the phone and went running out of the building, looking for my car.

I forgot that he had taken me to work that morning and went running back in looking for a ride. Another Co-worker came running and drove me to my house. I was crying and shaking the whole way, wondering what was going on and what happened.

I arrived at the house and seen the ambulance taking off down the road and there were police cars all around. I ran into the house and screamed for someone. An officer and Harvey came out of the bedroom and we rushed out of the house to the hospital.

The whole way I was asking what happened and if she was alive. He said he was in the living room watching tv and she wanted something to eat. He got her a snack and she went in her room to watch her favorite movie Cats and Dogs.

He got up to go to the bathroom and she was sitting on her bed watching the movie. He smiled at her and she waved at him. He said they would take a nap in a few minutes and she said okay. She loved to lay in our room with us and take a nap. He finished his bathroom break and went into our room to get ready for their afternoon nap.

He took off his shoes and layed back on the bed, switching the tv to cartoons, then yelled for her to come lay down. She didn't answer and she didn't come so he waited for a few minutes and yelled again for her. She said nothing so he got worried, because she always answered him when he asked if she was okay.

He got up and went to get her. He looked in her room and didn't see her. He checked the rest of the house then got a little more scared and went in her room again. He saw her feet behind the curtain that hung real low to the floor and smiled, thinking she was playing hide and seak with him.

He moved around to the porch where there is a window going to her room and was going to grab her and play with her. Thats when he saw her hanging from the cord of her curtains.

He almost tripped getting back to her room and knocked over her tv trying to get to her. He picked her up from the cord and seen she wasn't responding.

He quickly brought her into the living room near the phone and layed her down. Attempted CPR for a minute after he seen she wasn't breathing and couldn't get a heartbeat. He called 911 and told them to hurry and come. He continued CPR and got her to gasp and throw up. She had a very faint heart beat but still wasn't breathing when the ambulance arrived. They seen her and grabbed her quickly, taking her to the hospital.

I was crying and shaking so hard by the time we got to the hospital. I asked if she was breathing but they said they were working on her, and made us sit down. I was freaking out and praying she was okay.

Expecting she would be okay but that we would be there awhile with her. Finally they moved us to another waiting room and had the pastor come in and wait with us. We prayed for her and had some friends with us to call family.

It was the most awful wait of my life. A nurse came in about 20 minutes later to tell us she had a heartbeat and just to wait here. Family was showing up and friends as we waited for word she was going to be okay. Finally the doctor came into the room and sat down near us. I could tell by the look on his face, things weren't good. He said "I'm sorry, we did everything we could but we couldn't save her." I broke down and was saying "NO, NO, it's not true" I just freaked out. Her dad said it wasn't true, she wasn't dead and went running to the emergency room. They let him go in and see her. I just stayed there in shock, crying and saying no.

After awhile of being in a daze and hugging people and crying, they asked if I wanted to see her. How could I go see my dead child? I cried and couldn't answer, then finally went to see her. She was laying on the ER bed under a blanket with her eyes closed.

She looked like she was sleeping. I went to her quickly and touched her and held her hand. I couldn't believe my little baby girl was gone. I kept saying I couldn't live without her. I stayed a few minutes then I saw her clothes and ear rings laying on a table. I gathered them up and took them holding them close to me and waited for the rest of my family to get there.

I was in shock and couldn't believe this happened. We were such safe and cautious parents. We child proofed our home, used all the outlet covers. But she was 3 and a half, we never expected this to happen.

The rest of our family got there and broke down with us. Finally after about 3 hours of just sitting there in disbelief they told us we needed to decide what to do. I asked them to get me some of her hair.

We signed papers for her to be a donor but they said they had to do an autopsy and when we were ready they would call the coroner to take her. I didn't want her to go. I didn't know what to say, so I went back in to see her.

They asked if I wanted to hold her and I just looked at them. Finally I sat down and they put her little lifeless body in my arms. I hugged her and kissed her, wondering how I got to this. She was so perfect and precious. I didn't get to hold her long and they said it was time for them to take her.

I watched as they wheeled her little body zipped up in a black bag out of the hospital.