Unicorns Abound At Memorial Dedication For Wayne Girl, 6

WAYNE, N.J. -- In a private ceremony at her favorite place, loved ones of a bubbly Wayne girl who won countless hearts before dying of an inoperable brain tumor this past spring attended the unveiling Friday of a memorial bench.

Children at the Ryerson Elementary School decorated a unicorn for a garden in memory of Lily LaRue Anderson, who was 6.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Anderson Family, Ryerson School*

"Her second grade class sang Rent's 'Seasons of Love' and the entire school joined in with the most perfect 'All of Me' by John Legend and 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' mashup," Lily's mom wrote.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Anderson family, Ryerson School*

Barbara, Brian and their children.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Anderson family, Ryerson School*

Children at the Ryerson Elementary School fashioned a unicorn in Lily's memory.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Anderson family, Ryerson School*

Lily loved taking photos, making videos, doing impressions, telling jokes.
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Anderson family, Ryerson School*

"I cannot wait until spring to start her garden."
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Anderson Family, Ryerson School*

"If people did not love one another, I really don't see what use there would be in having any spring." (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
Photo Credit: *COURTESY: Anderson family, Ryerson School*

Jerry DeMarco

11/20/2015 5:30 p.m.

Ryerson Elementary School students sported unicorns at a garden planned in memory of Lily LaRue Anderson, 6.

"Her second grade class sang Rent's 'Seasons of Love' and the entire school joined in with the most perfect 'All of Me' by John Legend and 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' mashup," wrote her mother, Barbara Anderson.

She called it "the sweetest rendition I have ever heard."

At 5, Lily had won a poetry contest. One of twins, she loved taking photos, making videos, doing impressions, telling jokes.

She loved animals — “chihuahuas, unicorns, owls, monkeys, and even worms,” her parents wrote on the popular Facebook page "Hope for Lily LaRue Anderson."

With no prior signs, Lily was diagnosed in May 2014 with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

The tumor sat in the middle of her brain stem — which holds the “wiring” for motor control and sensation — and couldn’t be removed.

It’s a particularly cruel disease: Median overall survival 9 months.

Lily lasted 11.

Not expected to make it to last Christmas, she died on April 6, the day after Easter.

In that time, Lily and her family made a deep impression on many.

Sports stars, celebrities and people of all stripes rallied. The Shriners Circus brought them in as special guests.

Then there was Ryerson.

"My heart is so light, yet so full," Anderson wrote Friday on Facebook, cheering "all of Lily's favorite little and 'big' people armed with unicorns and hugs and dressed in pink and Lily unicorn shirts."

People donated a library of "Lily Books" that her mom said were "filled with circus, pig, cow, dog and of course unicorn stories....And as a special surprise, her bench will also have a permanent free library box right next to it."

"It's very hard for me to assume, nowadays, that laughter and light and happy moments really WILL come and DO exist," Lily's mom wrote.

"I do not take joy for granted anymore," she added. "So when it does come, I full acknowledge and stay in the moment because it gives me hope.

"I cannot wait until spring to start her garden."

ALSO SEE: Angel gone to Heaven: Lily LaRue Anderson, 6

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