A life worth remembering

Mom shares grief, recovery after loss of Cameron

COURTESY PHOTO 
Cameron, in the striped shirt, snuggles for story time with dad Derrick Bobbitt, her sister Kennedy, far right, and cousin Eaton in a photo from 2004.
COURTESY PHOTO Cameron, in the striped shirt, snuggles for story time with dad Derrick Bobbitt, her sister Kennedy, far right, and cousin Eaton in a photo from 2004.

Cameron had blond hair and blue eyes. "She was shy and kind. She loved to hug people, and she would sneak up behind people she knew and just hug them.

"When she was about 8 months old she learned to fake laugh, and she would join in whenever the group was laughing. This made us all laugh more and more."

GO & DO

Parents Left Behind:

Rebuilding Your Life After the Death of Your Child

When: 8 a.m.-noon April 5

Where: Jones Center, 922 E. Emma Ave. in Springdale

Cost: Free

Registration: nwacpe.org/?q=node/…

Information: (479) 872-3351

That's how Susan Averitt remembers her daughter. But she can't forget how she died, either.

Cameron was killed in an accident in a school crosswalk on Jan. 19, 2006. She would have been 6 on May 13 of that year.

"I ran the resuscitation effort as we waited for the ambulance," remembers Averitt, who is a physician. "It was apparent to me that she died instantly, but we tried to save her. I went from being a happy mom to losing my oldest daughter in the blink of an eye."

Since then, Averitt has grieved, wept, returned to her medical practice, given birth to another daughter and worked to make sure something positive comes out of Cameron's death. On April

NAN Our Town on 03/27/2014

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