Home > About Our Patient Artists > In loving memory of Gabriella

In loving memory of
Gabriella (1997-2006)

If you could have met Gabriella and witnessed the grace and dignity with which she faced her battle with cancer, you might not have believed that this meek, yet amazingly strong girl was only nine years old when she lost her fight. When asked about her cancer, Gabriella simply said, "This is God’s way of teaching me how to be brave."

And "Gabby," as her friends called her, was brave. She faced her chemotherapy treatments and a bone marrow transplant without complaint, treating the challenge like the snow hills she would climb outside her home each winter. "She would never give up," remembered Gabriella’s mom, Susan. "She was so good at getting to the top."

A girl with a passion for artistic expression, a girl who loved to make snow angels, and a girl who could eat a dozen cut-out cookies with sprinkles at a single sitting – that's how we at The Paint Box Project will always remember Gabriella. Cancer did not define this extraordinary girl; it allowed her to truly shine as the angel she was.