A little girl lost, a rainbow found
Avery Lubrecht's fight against cancer touched many
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

COURTESY OF THE LUBRECHT FAMILY Avery Judith Lubrecht (left) on Brick Beach 3 in April 2008, one week before her cancer diagnosis, and at Christmas 2007.

Rainbows became a symbol of hope during 4-year-old Avery Lubrecht's brief battle against brain cancer.

A rainbow appeared over Windward Beach in late April, on the night a vigil planned for the little girl had to be postponed because of rain.

Rainbow posters adorned the walls of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where Avery spent most of the last three and a half months of her short life.

Avery died at home in her mother Stacy's arms at 6:45 a.m. on Aug. 8, surrounded by family members and her precious stuffed Tiger Bear.

Stacy Lubrecht held her little girl for a little while after she died. The sleep-deprived mother at first thought she was hallucinating when she spotted a small, perfectly arched rainbow shimmering on the bed, right at Avery's feet.

"I really thought I was losing my mind," Lubrecht said Monday. "This is what people see when they don't have all their faculties."

She finally asked her brother, sister and the hospice nurse if they saw anything. They did.

"My sister started crying," Lubrecht said. "If we didn't have six witnesses, people would think we were nuts."

There was no light shining through the bedroom windows, no sun catchers to explain the rainbow. "I'm looking for an explanation," she said. "None of us could find it. It was spectacular."

Avery's fight began April 30, when the little girl was diagnosed with medulla blastoma, a brain stem tumor. She had surgery May 2. Then came months of chemotherapy, side effects, fevers and infections. Through it all, Stacy Lubrecht kept hoping Avery would, in Avery's words, "kick cancer's butt."

"I really thought we were going to get through this," she said, choking up. "I really thought we were going to win."

But then came July 30, the day the Stacy and Christopher Lubrecht learned their daughter wasn't going to make it. The tumor had grown rapidly. The chemotherapy was actually doing more harm than good.

"The doctor's voice was shaking and the nurses were in tears," she said.

Avery came home to Brick on Aug. 2. They took her to the beach, the place she loved the most. But she deteriorated quickly. The last two days were not easy. The little girl had seizures and trouble breathing, Stacy Lubrecht said.

The last morning of her life, Avery's mother whispered to Avery that it was all right to go. She told her to find her Aunt Joan, Stacy's aunt who died suddenly 11 years ago.

The Lubrechts decided to donate portions of Avery's body to the Children's Hospital for research.

It was not a difficult decision, Lubrecht said.

"It was easy to do," she said. "It had to be that way. She has to teach other people how to fight this. It seemed like the right thing to do. I think she is going to keep kicking cancer's butt."

Stacey Lubrecht plans to keep working to raise money for cancer research.

"Kids shouldn't die because we don't have the right tools," she said.

The family has planned a celebration of Avery's life from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 16, at the Timothy P. Ryan Funeral Home on St. Catherine Boulevard in Toms River. Stacey Lubrecht asks that visitors avoid wearing black.

For more information, visit the Web site www.averyjudith.com.

"It's like an open house for people to come and look at her pictures and some of her things," she said. "I just want it to be happy for her. She was a just a happy kid."

Avery leaves behind her sister, Megan, and her brothers, Griffin and Jack. They have already gotten counseling provided by the school district, their mother said.

"You can't possibly make it better for them," Stacey Lubrecht said. "You can't buy something. You can't love it away. It's something they have to deal with." Avery will be cremated along with her Tiger Bear, her companion through her illness. When Avery got an IV or a medical treatment, the stuffed animal did too, her mother said.

"She had it right to the end," Stacey Lubrecht said. "She was holding him and I was holding her."

Avery's ashes will be strewn in the ocean. "We have so many pictures of her on the beach," she said. "The beach is the perfect place for her."