October 19, 2025- Avery’s 17th Birthday
Ten years ago, we set up and decorated the Lakeland Hills HOA for a birthday party that would celebrate the 7th birthday for our precious Avery.
We planned, decorated and celebrated a birthday that we knew would, on earth, be the last birthday party Avery would ever get to have.
She was 3.5 months into her fight against brain cancer, less than four months away from taking her final breath.
Avery was so excited to plan her invite list, what she wanted to do, how she wanted to celebrate, what the food and snacks would be, what the cake would taste like.
Maybe she knew it would be her last birthday to celebrate? Maybe she thought she would have “many more” as we would sing to her each October 19.
We wanted it to be the most memorable birthday party she would ever have. She wanted it to be memorable, but in a low key way- ironic, considering Avery loved a good celebration.
A PJ party with manicures for all the girls, pizza and a movie (Paddington) was what she wanted. There were presents, songs, friends and family, but all she cared about was having all those people there with her.
Ten years later, on the day that would have been her 17th birthday, we think back to that night.
A night that, deep down, we knew would be the last birthday party we’d ever be able to host for her.
A night that we didn’t want to end, Avery, the focus of all the attention, could celebrate with her friends and her cousins and aunts and parents and siblings and grandparents, and forget that a tumor was not only just ravaging her brain, but the rest of her body.
Forever 7 - it says it on her headstone. A 7th birthday that would be the last time she’d ever get to celebrate.
A day that, a decade later, still leaves a hole in our heart.
No birthday girl to take out to dinner, or bring coffee and donuts to in the morning.
A visit to the cemetery (thankfully, Mama was able to visit the cemetery this weekend while back in Washington).
Avery would be a junior in high school. This weekend was homecoming at the high school she would have gone to. She probably would have gotten her drivers license a year ago.
She would be driving.
She would probably be, the stubborn little girl that she was, driving us mad at times, like a teenager is known to do.
And we would give anything for that battle of wills to be taken place here on earth.
So much has changed in our life in the last decade.
But the hole and empty feeling hasn’t- it’s only changed in size - bigger and deeper.
We’re coming up on a decade since she passed away- in February of 2026, it will be ten years.
Ten years since that last birthday that have flown by.
Ten years since that last birthday that has crawled ever so slowly.
We continue to move forward.
We continue to fight back in her honor, to show how proud we are of her fight, her toughness, her brAvery, and fight back so other families have hope.
We won’t ever stop fighting.
We won’t ever stop celebrating her.
We won’t ever stop honoring her.
Join with us in the fight.
Our fight back against cancer, against DIPG.
Our fight to give kids hope, give kids chance.
Support the Avery Huffman DIPG Foundation: https://averystrongdipg.org/donate
Forever 7.
Forever in our hearts.
We love you and miss you, Aves.
Forever.
#AveryStrong
Mom, Dad, Alex, Cade and Addison.
