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The little red-haired girl from Lititz — whose battle with cancer and a plea for Christmas cards touched people's hearts the world over — was given only a few weeks to live late last year.
But Hannah, who was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme in October and wasn't expected to see Christmas, struggled through to her fifth birthday on Jan. 16. She celebrated Easter and even managed to dip her toes in the Chesapeake Bay during an early summer outing.
She rode in a fire truck in the Mother's Day Make-a-Wish convoy and, on May 30, she fulfilled a dream by serving as flower girl in her cousin Sheri's wedding. Her favorite colors were pink and purple, and she loved to draw.
Hannah died Tuesday evening, surrounded by her family.
Her father, Darin, who faithfully kept a record of Hannah's progress at CaringBridge, a Web site devoted to the care of people with terminal illnesses, announced the news with a brief message just a few hours later.
"Tonight at 5:45 Hannah went home to be with Jesus," he wrote at 9:18 p.m. "She was surrounded by family & passed peacefully.
"Right now I'm pretty exhausted. It's been a long day. Please pray for the family & me over this tough time."
Hannah's grandmother, Shirley Garman, said Tuesday that the family is coping with the loss with the support of family and friends.
Knowing it was coming didn't make the reality any easier, she said.
"She was a brave little thing. She stayed brave right to the end," Shirley Garman said.
"But it really hits hard, when it comes. We're just trying to get through the days without her."
•••
Glioblastoma multiforme is an aggressive and incurable brain tumor that attached itself to Hannah's cerebellum.
Hannah's immediate family — father Darin, brother Jordan, 9, and sister Brittany, 13, all of Lititz — rallied around the cute, cheerful girl. Grandparents Bob and Shirley, also of Lititz, took Hannah in and cared for her while Darin was working.
Hannah's mother, Christine, died of breast cancer in 2006.
Efforts to arrest the spread of Hannah's cancer included several surgeries and other treatments at Johns Hopkins and Hershey medical centers, as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatments that were discontinued in January. Steroids reduced her pain levels, but made the girl hungry and moody.
Realizing Hannah didn't have the energy to enjoy a typical Christmas, her family started to spread the word that she wanted Christmas cards — a lot of Christmas cards — so she could tear them open and enjoy the pictures.
Opening Christmas cards is "one thing she can do," Shirley Garman said in December. "She's ripping them open herself. She loves looking at the pictures, and we read every card to her."
The initial story about Hannah's plight appeared in the Intelligencer Journal on Dec. 18. Later that day, a parade of 106 fire trucks, plus ambulances and police cars, delivered 10,100 cards to Hannah in one massive burst of community support.
Her story circulated quickly, drawing on the power of the Internet to spread to readers all over the world.
All told, Hannah received more than 165,000 cards from more than 40 countries, including Australia, Thailand, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq sent her cards, too.
A few days after his little girl turned 5, Darin remarked with wonder on Hannah's boundless spirit despite the constant pain and uncertainty.
"She has none of that adult self-pity," he said. "There's no questioning, no 'Why me?' She just moves on. Is it a child's innocence? I don't know."
Surviving Hannah besides her father, siblings and paternal grandparents are her maternal grandparents, Jim and Esther Burkey of Denver and Jeanne and Larry Snyder of Lititz, and great-grandparents Norman and Violetta Weaver of Lititz.
Viewings will be held at Middle Creek Church of the Brethren, 351 Middle Creek Road, Lititz, from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday and from 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday. Funeral services will follow at 10 a.m. Saturday.
E-mail: tknapp@lnpnews.com
