Nose for News by Sarah Stultz

“Are you sure you’re ready for a sleepover with lots of giggly girls?” I remember my husband asking me two years ago as we prepared for my daughter, Sophie’s eighth birthday.

It was the first time for her to have a major sleepover, and being that my husband worked nights at the time, that meant I would be taking on a house full of girls mostly by myself.

Sophie loved the cartoon “Monster High,” so the theme was centered around that. We had pizza to eat for dinner and cake and ice cream for dessert.  The girls were getting a little too old for cute party games, so I mostly let them hang out, watch movies and play “The Voice” game on our Nintendo Wii.

Sophie was so happy and so proud to have her friends over to our house, and I’ll never forget the fun those girls had — and the energy they had, too, when they were all together. Wow, even now, I can remember the shrills and the giggles — probably from all the sugar from the cake and ice cream. It was an eventful time, though it was a little hectic.

Fast forward two years, and Tuesday marks Sophie’s second birthday in heaven. We have planned a simpler birthday of sorts today, where we plan to release balloons in her honor Tuesday evening at one of her favorite playgrounds in town at Sibley Elementary School.

Much has happened since that birthday two years ago when Sophie turned 8, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t challenging. I would have loved for her to see and enjoy the completion of the Albert Lea splash pad this past summer, to have participated in the Prairie Fire Children’s Theatre production at Lakeview Elementary School this past weekend, to see her brother start kindergarten this coming fall and, of course, to have many more sleepovers with her friends, among other things.

But I also find comfort by my beliefs that she fulfilled her purpose on this earth and is fulfilling a new purpose right now with our other loved ones who have gone on before.

Sophie was a girl with strong determination and inner motivation and could achieve anything she set her mind to. As I look back and continue to hold my memories of her close, I can’t help but be inspired by her determination — and always by her smile.

Today, and every day as I think of her, I gain a renewed desire to develop that same determination.

Give your loved ones an extra hug for me today — and squeeze them extra tight. Sophie gave the best tight hugs.

#SmilelikeSophie

Sarah Stultz is the managing editor of the Tribune. Her column appears every Tuesday.