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It’s a sad time to lose someone.

On Thanksgiving, the Miss-Lou community was rocked by the sad news that no one wanted to hear, an 11-year-old girl who was loved by so many people has died after a lengthy illness.

Lilly-Anne Bryan had suffered for a lot of her life, from the time she was four years old and discovered she had cancer at a routine pediatric visit.

She loved to ride horses and go hunting, fishing, running and just about anything outdoors until her illness wouldn’t let her. Even then, she was happy and positive and a delight to anyone around her.

Her story is an inspirational one, not just how she survived cancer but how she fought to survive and continued to smile even until her last days.

What is also inspirational is how her family, her parents Joey and Lacy Bryan and grandparents, kept on praying and kept faith and hope long after medical professionals had given up.

Now, Lilly-Anne no longer has any belly pain or tubes tied to her body. She is free from all suffering. Our hearts are now with her family who are experiencing the worse, yet invisible pain of losing a child they loved so dearly.

It was just last year that the community lost Lilly-Anne’s friend Watson Calhoun, who fought cancer until he died at the age of four.

That pain will likely linger on forever.

However, just as the community rallied behind Lilly-Anne through her fight with cancer and subsequent battle with pulmonary fibrosis, we know they will continue to hold up this family up and offer some comfort.

Both these families need our love and support, as do many others.

Our hearts go out to anyone who has lost someone this holiday season and who must gather with other family members around an empty seat at the table as a painful reminder.

Nothing will fill that kind of void, but a little encouragement and act of kindness perhaps will make it easier.