Holly Owen was a secretary at Westmore Oaks Elementary School for 13 years. Before that, she worked at Southport Elementary. Four years ago, Owen was diagnosed with cancer and in spring of 2014, she retired from her position at the school to fight her cancer. Shortly thereafter, Owen was talking with Deanea Elfers, a close friend through work at Westmore Oaks, and Owen confided in her. “We were talking one day and the one thing that she told me she wanted out of all of this was to see her baby, Samantha, graduate high school,” said Elfers.

Unfortunately, the graduation ceremony for Samantha wasn’t scheduled to be held until June of 2016, and Owen wasn’t expected to survive that long. So Elfers and a group of her friends and coworkers, including Tonka Harrison, Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez (School Board), Alicia Cruz (School Board), and Ben Kingsbury (Assistant Principal River City High School), set about staging an early graduation ceremony for Samantha, who goes to River City High School, so that Holly Owen could see her graduate. The party was originally planned for the end of October, but at the advice of hospice, the party was moved up to Sunday, October 18th.

The party was incredible. “The total count of people was over 300 people, according to Tonka,” said Elfers. But the highlight of the party was the graduation. “Tonka’s daughter still had her cap and gown from when she graduated River City High School. Mrs. Cruz had a diploma holder, and both she and Mrs. Kirby-Gonzalez wrote a special note for Samantha. I made her the poster and a lei to make it as close to the real event as possible. We even played Pomp and Circumstance as she walked into the room, to her mom. Samantha’s first words to her mom were, ‘Look Momma, I graduated.’ There wasn’t a dry eye in the room,” said Elfers. Holly Owen’s last wish was granted.

“It’s going to be rough when she’s gone,” said Elfers on October 23rd. Sadly, on October 28th at 8:47 a.m. at the age of 45, Owen died. She left three daughters behind. Best regards to her friends and family in this tough time.