January 8, 1983 -April 20, 2009

Story from the Quilt:
We chose a lighthouse for our design because of our daughter’s name and because of what she felt her purpose in life was.

Before Candace was born we had her name already picked out, then two weeks before she was born some close friends had a girl and they named their daughter the name we had picked out. We just could not use the same name so my husband and I each picked three names we liked. We matched on two, so our first born child and daughter became Candace Tara. She looked up what her name meant. Candace means brilliant white light and Tara means tower. From that day on she would tell everyone her name meant lighthouse.

The day after she went home to be with the Lord we were reading her journals. On the second page we read these words she had written, “I want to have a love for life and a light that shines through me conveying to others your love Jesus.”

I believe God gave her that name because he knew that she would be a lighthouse pointing others to him and his love for them.

She did not think long and hard about becoming a donor, to her it seemed like the natural thing to do. When she talked to others about becoming a donor she would always say that when you die if you know Jesus then you will be in heaven with a new perfect body. She would give to anyone anything she could to help while she was alive; so she saw no reason not to give the body she was leaving behind in this world to anyone that could use it.