Mom shares heartbreaking image of her toddler's ashes strapped into car seat
Ellie Watson was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was just 4 months old, and after a grueling battle with the disease, she passed away on January 15 at the tender age of 4.
See photos of Ellie:
Her mother, Sarah Watson, took to Facebook on March 15 to share a heartbreaking photo of her daughter's temporary urn, which she took the time to decorate by hand since Ellie's permanent urn hadn't been finished yet.
"We made you a custom urn, you would love it baby girl," the bereaved mother wrote on the Prayers For Ellie Walton Facebook page, where she documented her daughter's devastating fight.
"Unfortunately temporary urns are just boxes, that wasn't good enough for you, so I decorated it, until your perfect urn comes in."
"Driving you home the other day, I was scared, but buckling you in felt normal," she continued. "Even though None of this is normal, none of this is right. You should be here."
Since Watson first wrote the post, the tear-inducing paragraph has racked up over 1,200 shares and 500 comments from people around the world.
"Sitting in the car waiting for my boys to finish Wednesday church and my tears will not stop. I cannot even for a moment fathom your pain," wrote one mom.
"Your story has reached one of the biggest papers in Sweden. I read the article, and with tears running I looked up this page," commented a father of two. "This picture went straight into my heart."
Watson ended her tragic post on a note to raise awareness about a very pressing issue -- currently, only 4 percent of federal research funding goes towards childhood cancer research.
She says she hopes this funding disparity will one day change so that no parent will ever experience the pain and suffering she endured during Ellie's short lifetime.
"I never want another mom to feel this way, and I will fight for these other kids so that no other mom has to buckle in ashes of their babies," she wrote. "Because you have always been worth #morethan4."
