Adventures of Haley Reece

I met Haley in 7th grade because she always liked all my Instagram pictures. When I went to a Licking Valley football game one Friday night, I didn’t know who she was and she didn’t really know me, but we were hanging out with the same people, she began talking about “kimberr.14” from Instagram until she figured out it was actually me. We became really good friends after that.

This is about the life of Haley that I knew, from 7th grade summer through the summer of 11th grade on July 4th, 2017. She meant a lot to me, and I do not want people to forget the joy that she brought to me and plenty of others throughout her lifetime. She was a joyful, adventurous friend who always had something to bring to the table. She never questioned what to do because if it was from taking hours of a nap in bed to driving all night, she always had something in mind.

One of the first times that I went over to Haley’s house we went to walk to the Dollar Store because neither of us had our licenses at the time and we were the only ones home, plus Haley said it was only about a five minute walk. After about 30 minutes later, we were finally there, irritated because we knew the walk back was just going to be worse carrying our snacks back, and it being so hot and humid. On our way back, I dared Haley to jump in the river, thinking she’d back out. Looking over at her seeing her grin and just running to jump in the river, the amount of shock I felt seeing her run in there made me do the same. All the way back home she talked about how excited she was to eat big chicken nuggets that her grandma bought… chicken patties.

Haley was a type 1 diabetic but she never let that get in her way. She always made the best of times and always knew where she wanted to eat, never was that a question. When I first met her, I did not understand what she was doing when she’d check her sugar or the importance of her insulin, but being around her for so long I grew use to the routine of getting ready to eat.

Throughout the summer of 2017, on July 4, Haley passed away due to being a type 1 diabetic. She was one of the most caring people I’ve had throughout my life, it didn’t matter who you were or if you treated her great or badly, she was always there for anyone and everyone at all times of the day. Even though she was a bear at time, grumpy and wanting to nap all the time, she was such a joy to be around for as long as I got to.