After Waiting Years To Pack Up Her Late Daughter's Room an Unexpected Gift Emerged

"Donna Cochran had boxed up nearly every room in her Atlanta, Georgia, home - except one. The space belonged to her late daughter, Ansley, and it remained exactly as it had the day Ansley left it, with journals, jewelry and drawers filled with the cozy clothes she loved to wear. Ansley died in 2018 at 21, after a 19-year battle with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer. What Cochran could not yet bring herself to dismantle was not a bedroom, but a life."

"When Cochran was finally ready, she shared a simple video on Instagram showing Ansley's bedroom before and after it was cleared. In the caption, she explained that the moment was about far more than the physical act itself. Packing up the room and moving into a new home, Cochran wrote, meant "saying goodbye again." What followed was beyond anything Cochran had anticipated. Much to her surprise, the simple video began to spread."

"What Cochran had feared facing the most became the very thing that brought new visability - nearly 2 million views on Instagram - to the Ansley Foundation, the pediatric cancer organization she and her husband, Lamar, 61, founded after their daughter's death. "A funny post will get tons of attention, but a child with cancer? It's one of those things where people don't tend to pay attention until it affects them," she says."

Donna Cochran preserved her late daughter Ansley's bedroom unchanged after Ansley's death in 2018 following a 19-year battle with neuroblastoma. Cochran eventually filmed a before-and-after video of clearing the room and posted it on Instagram, writing that packing up the room and moving into a new home meant saying goodbye again. The video unexpectedly went viral, garnering nearly 2 million views and directing attention to the Ansley Foundation, a pediatric cancer organization Cochran and her husband founded after Ansley's death. Cochran described the outpouring of supportive comments as deeply meaningful and expressed a sense that Ansley continues to guide the family.

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