Sidney Olson
My sweet 5 year old daughter Sidney was killed by a semi-truck in a crosswalk less on May 9, 2023. We were less than a block from our house and had a walk sign. I told her it was safe to cross and watched steps away with my 2 year old son as she was crushed under the truck.
** My words about my beautiful daughter at Sidney’s Celebration of life**
Oh my sweet spinning smiling sprite Sidney you never seemed to stop moving and your radiant smile and energy was infectious. A mom is supposed to teach her daughter but Sidney was my teacher. She taught me to look around and see love and beauty everywhere and she taught me that love is not finite to be divided up like a pizza but rather love is like air – it is all around us, knows no bounds and is infinite if you take it in. She taught me to be unapologetically myself and relish in that freedom.
I soaked up every minute with my beautiful girl and she was never far from me. I only spent two nights away from my baby girl. Sidney used to ask me do you miss me when I am at school. And I told her yes of course and it was not just lip service it was true I would think of her all the time and I would look at my watch and try to guess what adventures she and her friends were up to at that exact moment. On the rare occasion I saw her in the wild and she didn’t see me I loved watching her and felt such joy and pride and love in seeing her little soul out in the world being her unique amazing authentic self and I felt so so lucky that I got to be her mom.
Sidney loves her friends and family. She is happiest around all her friends and family. Every night she would ask what are we doing tomorrow and want the exact details and she always wanted to add in more time with family and friends and include everyone she cared about in her day. Today in fact would be her perfect day having all of you here - all the people she loved most and that loved her most - all out here in this beautiful setting having fun, playing in nature and eating ice cream. This is a day she would have loved and she would have whispered to me as I tucked her into her bed - mommy that was the best day ever. She loved her little brother and we could hear her softly singing and talking him to sleep each night - patiently answering his questions with a yes Haddie is asleep…yeesss we can go to the pango (our work for playground) tomorrow and soothing him to sleep or finally telling him finally to be quite and go to sleep. Sidney loved making personal notes and gifts for her friends. On Valentine's Day she spent weeks making sure each friend received a special card to express her love for them.
Sidney loves nature and is always looking for beauty everywhere. Much to her mother’s chagrin she would spot a beautiful flower whether in front of the bank, in the town planters, or a neighbors front yard and feel compelled to pick it. I would try to dissuade her but usually we compromised and she would agree to only pick one or two flowers per walk, usually earmarking each flower for daddy or another special person in her life. The same applied to interesting rocks or sticks or moss or worms or caterpillars. Unfortunately the worms and caterpillars didn’t fare too well under her care. Despite her best intentions to give them a comfortable home she sometimes forgot the air holes or smothered them with love. She loved all animals and especially her dog and fish– and she had picked all her future kittens and rabbits and named them - Cake and Mango the Kitties and Milkshake and Marshmallow the bunnies.
Sidney believes in magic. She is always looking for unicorns, mermaids and fairies. In the woods every adventure became a trek to the fairy tree where we would hike using all our senses and she would meticulously look for the tiny fairy footprints and listen for their wings and when Sidney finally found the tree that she was confident must be home to her magical friends her parents would try, not very stealthily, to sneak a gift from the fairies under it for her. Sidney would insist on gifting the fairies with whatever leaf or stick or rock or other treasure she had collected along the way. Last week she proclaimed that she wanted to see a unicorn so we never stopped searching for the local Andover unicorn.
Sidney loves to paint and draw, dance and sing. During the pandemic, she started creating watercolors at her easel with such concentration on each exact paint stroke and she never stopped creating her own unique style of art. Her love of dancing and singing was contagious; she was a ball of constant motion jumping off couches and climbing on walls and coordinating little dances. At her dance recital she may have been a step slow in the routine but wow did she nail each and every tuck jump. She would suspend gravity for a moment - flying above the stage while the other kids looked so earthbound. She loved singing along with powerful female voices like T. Swift or Miley Cyrus or Lady Gaga to name a few. She would be dancing and singing and moving with the music with a pure joyful freedom and passion even when listening to Red Lips and Rosy cheeks (her name for Wildest Dreams) or Party in the USA or Call Me Maybe for the thousandth time.
Sidney you delighted everyone around you there was no way not to smile and laugh in your presence. From hug attacks to tickle crabs to couch snuggles and bed tuck-ins there was nothing better than cuddling up with a giggling happy Sidney or a sweet sleepy Sidney. There is a stillness and quiet emptiness where you are missed each and every minute of every day. Each morning your dad and I listen for you to whoosh down the bunk bed slide then the distinctive thump as your feet hit the ground running and each night I look for your little head of rumpled curls in the top bunk. You aren’t here but we still have you. You are in each and every cell of my being and forever a part of my heart and soul. I see you everywhere from the flowers that reach toward the sky to the leaves rustling on the trees to the birds and butterflies flying all around us and of course in the rainbows above us. I would trade anything in the world for one more hug attack from you or one more chance to tuck you into your bed kissing you then Bobo then you again then Bobo and finally one last kiss for you. But it is time to let you fly free - I can’t hold you but I can feel you in each breath and see you in the magic that is all around us. Your love will never die and we will carry your beauty and light with us always.
