A Texas mom captured the moment her 22-month-old daughter left for a trip to the store without her, not knowing it would be her last.
In a reel on Instagram, mom Naïma Hill filmed her toddler, Aveline or ‘Avy’ as she was nicknamed, heading out the door with her dad for a quick Home Depot errand.
That morning, David had gently encouraged Avy to go on a “daddy adventure” without mom. “She was excited to go but also a bit nervous,” Naïma told Newsweek.
“I was always recording things to show my kids when they grew up. Who knew it would actually be for me to bawl over watching in the middle of the night, missing my babe.”
Days later, in May 2023, Naïma and her two children, Avy and Kade, then 4, were in a devastating car crash. The Hills were on their way to visit family overseas when they were hit by a vehicle from behind going 66 miles per hour. Naïma and Kade survived, but Avy and the family dog, Kemosabe, were killed.
Avy, Naïma said, was her “barnacle baby”—never far from her mother’s side. “I miss the small things—her going every place with me, even if it’s just for a minute she wanted to be in my arms. Avy was full of sunshine and sass. Happy to be outside, being held by her momma, [she] loved her family, her dog, had her favorite books, loved her horse Baba, and loved babies.”
In the aftermath of the crash, Naïma said that people often ask how she copes following such tragedy.
“Child loss is not something you get over, ever,” she said. “When something like this happens, the entire world is dark and everything is bad, so I am desperately trying to find and do good in this world, bring her sunshine back a little.”
What has helped, Naïma said, is finding friends who allow her to be honest without judgment. “With these few friends, we were able to say we’ve all never gone through this, and we don’t know the words that will hurt or feel OK, but our intentions and hearts are in the right place,” Naïma said. “We trust each other, and so let’s say whatever is on our mind and not be afraid to say the wrong thing and, most importantly, be called out for it.”
Naïma has also found purpose in Avy’s Sunshine Tribe (AvysSunshineTribe.com), a nonprofit she founded to honor her daughter and bring light back into the community.
Through it, Naïma organizes Avy’s Sunshine Kite Festival, a free annual event in Dallas inspired by Guatemala’s Sumpango kite tradition, where families decorate and fly kites to connect with lost loved ones.
The festival raises funds toward the family’s goal of building an inclusive community playground in their Cedars neighborhood.
Naïma also sells Avy-inspired art, stickers, and apparel to support the project. “I share my story and grief and raw of loss trying to expose more people to this deep pain so everyone can feel like they can always talk about their losses and carry them with them forever,” she said. “Spreading Avy’s sunshine is all I can do.”
Naïma continues to speak openly about grief, hoping to make conversations about loss less taboo. “On the back of our kite festival shirts, it says, ‘Ask me about my kite,’ which translates to something, like ‘Ask me about my person,’ so that, when people ask, you can freely tell them about your lost loved one. We always say, ‘Love them out loud forever.’ I always tell people to take pictures and videos because you’ll lose so many memories without them.”