After a local teen passed away, one neighbour wanted to show support for the family by changing the colour of their outdoor house light.
News of the gesture spread to the neighbourhood and soon dozens of homes in Erin Ridge were radiating pink and purple in honour of Layla Hood, a 19-year-old who recently passed away following a diagnosis of a rare and aggressive form of bone cancer.
The family received the cancer diagnosis on New Year’s Day; just three weeks later, on January 23, Layla passed.
Neighbour and friend of the Hood family, Laura Oladokun, felt compelled to reach out to her fellow neighbours and do something to support the family.
“As a mom of a daughter the same age, it's just every time I looked at their house, I couldn't help but feel that inside that home was a family whose whole world has just stopped and how hard it must be for them to know that everybody else is carrying on as normal outside of their walls,” Oladokun said.
“I wanted to let them know that we were thinking about them in a non-intrusive way,” Oladokun said.
The neighbour immediately changed her light to pink, to honour Layla, and then noticed the Hood’s house also had a pink light. Oladokun asked the rest of the street to change their lights to show support for the family, and quickly there were eight houses participating.
Soon, over 40 houses all throughout the neighbourhood had turned their lights pink in honour of Layla. The community has since named the project ‘Lights for Layla.’
Layla’s mom, Clare Hood said it was great to see her daughter inspired so many people in the community.
“It is a loss for us, but we're overwhelmed by how everyone's supported us. We all would drive around and the purple lights were just lovely. And they're still up to this day, which is nice,” she said.
Hood said she and her family are endlessly grateful to the St. Albert and Erin Ridge communities for their ongoing support.
“It was overwhelming for our family, all the support that we got from everyone in the community. I think [her death] shocked everyone because she's well known. It was beautiful how the community came together.”
Oladokun said she knew how much the lights meant to the family.
“They are originally from the UK, so they had to go to the airport to pick up some family coming in for the funeral and they toured them around Erin Ridge on the way home at night to see the pink lights and the support for their families," Oladokun said.
The neighbour said the project was a “quiet but very impactful” way to show their support, especially in the dark days of late winter. Oladokun went on to create a GoFundMe page for the family’s funeral expenses, which quickly exceeded its goal.
Clare said her husband, Geoff, had initially changed their porch light to purple in honour of Layla’s fight, which she loved. “I think Layla then went ‘round to anyone that's got lights and was telling them to turn them all to purple, and it quickly went viral, which was super cool.”
Clare said her daughter was well-known in St. Albert, due to her involvement in local hockey—she played for the St. Albert Raiders and played ringette as well. She graduated from Bellerose Composite High School and also worked at East Side Mario’s restaurant.
“She was one of those people, if you speak to any of her friends, they'll say she was friends with everyone. Even if some of her friends didn't like another person, she would say, ‘Well, they've not done anything wrong to me. I'm still being friends with them.’ She wanted to be friends with everyone,” Hood said.
Nearly a month after her passing, the family is still waiting on an official diagnosis for their daughter.
"She had osteosarcoma, but they still have not given us the exact type because it's so rare that they we still haven't got answers. It grew so fast. She was dead 23 days after being diagnosed," Hood explained. "So we're still waiting to hear from the Cross Cancer [Institute]. All we know is that it was very rare and aggressive, it was chemo-resistant."
Despite the quick nature of her daughter's illness and subsequent passing, Hood is proud of the legacy her daughter has left behind-- a legacy that has inspired several local projects. Layla's friends have since created a hashtag, #LiveLikeLayla.
“[They created] stickers and stuff like helmet stickers that say live like Layla, because she did live life to the fullest. And even though she died when she was 19, she has done a lot more in her life than some people do by the time they’re in their 60s—she has been skydiving and stuff like that,” she said.
Hood said her daughter's friends have been inspired to live life to the fullest, just as Layla did.
