Estlin’s light shines on this Christmas

EVEN in the darkest days a gesture of kindness can bring some light. An Ennistymon family who tragically lost their daughter last year, are helping to make this Christmas a little bit brighter for others in an amazing act of generosity.
Amy Dutil-Wall and her partner Vincent Wall from Ennistymon have endured the deepest of tragedies with the loss of Estlin Luna just before her fourth birthday in a car crash last year that also left Vincent fighting for his life.
In honour of Estlin, the family have decided to donate some Christmas gifts to two worthy young girls around her age. Amy explains that she got the idea after seeing a number of offers of help to those in need on the Clare Free to a Good Home site. “It was something I was thinking of doing for a while, to give a gift in honour of Estlin and I thought why not this year. The holidays can be hard for many different reasons. For us, they’ll never be the same after losing our precious daughter.” She posted her idea on line looking for families that need help this year and she tells us the responses were “amazing”. Two little girls have now been chosen to receive some presents from the family.
“They both had stories that were close to my heart, the experiences that they have been through we could relate to. It just felt like the right thing to do to help. It feels really nice to know that there are two girls in Clare that are going to have a few things to open on Christmas, and that’s because of Estlin. The little comforts you get in life are few and far between so when you do have an opportunity to do something that makes you feel good, to give something away to somebody else is a good feeling and I’m happy to do it and very honoured to do it. And I know Estlin would have been proud.”
She tells us they were “overwhelmed” with the response, not just from families looking for help. “I had to turn off the comments eventually on my Facebook because it was pinging away. Mostly from people offering condolences, others saying what an amazing gesture it was. It was lovely to see all the responses from people in the community. A lot of people that know us and a lot that don’t. It was really overwhelming. It did feel in a way that I was doing something a bit selfish, because I’m doing this to help myself feel better but everyone else didn’t see it that way. It was good to get the reassurance that it was a lovely way to keep Estlin’s memory alive.”
Amy dismisses talk of her strength in coping saying, “People say that. It’s something in the bereaved parents circle that can feel like a hard thing to hear because you haven’t really been given a choice. If I had a choice we would have Estlin back in a second. But that’s not an option for me, so there has to be some kind of good that can come from such a massive loss.
“It’s such a small thing to be able to buy a few Christmas presents for another family in the holiday season. The holidays are going to be really hard for us but to know that because of Estlin the holidays are going to be a a little easier for someone else that’s definitely a bit of comfort, and you have to take it where you can.”
The family are also finding solace in the joy their young son has brought them. “You begin to learn that one day isn’t really much different from the next, they are all a struggle to get through and some days are better than others. I think we are very blessed that our son was so young when the crash happened, so he has absolutely no idea what’s happened to the family. He was only ten weeks when Estlin died so he has no memories of his sister and what happened. In a way it’s good because we haven’t had to mind his grief while trying to deal with ours. And he is just a perfectly lovely, happy little boy. He’s going to be two in a couple of weeks and he is the reason that we get up and keep going. He deserves the life that we wanted to give Estlin. We don’t really have a choice, we have to keep going for him and he brings us enough happiness to be able to do that.”
While the support of the community also continues to be of help to the Wall family.”There is a bake sale planned to raise funds for Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Lahinch on Saturday, a fairy door has been put up in Bunratty with her name on and our local community created a fairy glen on the Inagh River,the place she used to walk with her grandparents. The support from the community has been the main reason we have been able to keep going. Everybody has banded together to continue to support us. Even though time is passing, no-one is forgetting her and no-one is forgetting us and for that we are eternally grateful. The community has been absolutely amazing.”