A 2-year-old girl died after falling into a pond during a family Christmas gathering in England.
Isobel Wallace died on Christmas Day, Thursday, Dec. 25, according to a message her aunt, Abigail Maxwell, shared on a GoFundMe page created to help Isobel’s parents, Tamara and Aaron, with funeral costs and to build a memorial fairy garden in their daughter’s honor.
Maxwell wrote that Isobel wandered away from the family’s Christmas celebrations in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and fell into a pond in a nearby garden moments later.
“It is extremely hard for me to try and communicate this and go over this living nightmare of our innocent darling girl [being] taken from us,” Maxwell wrote. “… We couldn’t find her for a moment and in that moment, she’s gone in the garden and fell in the pond.”
Maxwell described Isobel as “the happiest, smiliest, most adventurous and curious little girl.”
She also said the pond had “a temporary fence around it” and was in a garden Isobel “would never have accessed by herself.” Maxwell added that the family had been staying at the house while their “forever home” was undergoing renovations.
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After the child was pulled from the pond, Maxwell wrote that family members performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Isobel was taken to a nearby hospital, but Maxwell said she “sadly couldn’t be saved.”
“Aaron, Tamara, the whole family and everyone who knows of Isobel … all of us are absolutely heartbroken,” Maxwell wrote. “As you can imagine, this is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to parents, to lose their baby.”
“She was so happy, so loved and they were the best parents who gave her the most wonderful life,” she added.
On Dec. 28, Tamara posted a social media tribute to her daughter, thanking their local community for its support and for showing “no [judgment] for the tragic accident.”
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“Everyone who knows Isobel and us knows how gifted she was and that she lived more in her two years than some children did in a lifetime,” she wrote on Facebook. “We also want people to remember Isobel for the magic girl she was and the adventure and fire she had in her soul and how much light she brought, not for her sad passing.”
“We will raise her baby brother the same way and he will know he has a sister and that she is and will continue to be amazing,” Tamara continued. “… She will be Mummy and daddy’s Christmas angel she will ALWAYS be [a part] of us.”
