Ashley Samantha Weikel

Ashley was born October 13, 1992 in Aurora, Colorado. She was loved, encouraged, and supported by many throughout her life. She was a smart, happy, beautiful, fun-loving, goofy kid. She was energetic, head -strong, passionate, and determined to follow her dreams. Growing up Ashley enjoyed spending time outdoors, playing soccer, swimming, hiking, bike riding, playing volleyball, going to the theater, reading and writing, but most of all hanging out with her friends. Ashley had a passion for dolphins, studied them, and from the time she was 10 years old wanted to be a Marine biologist. At the age of 17 she discovered she also had a talent when it came to photography and she got her first photography job in Lakewood, CO. I took her to the art institute because she decided she wanted to incorporate photography with the Marine biology. Things changed, however, and as she became an adult, she changed and so did her wants and her needs and her passions. In a letter she explained to me that sometimes people need to experience other types of life, different kinds of life, good or bad, and thats what she wanted and so she did. She spent time with different members of her family that she hadn't seen in quite some time and built relationships and had new experiences before deciding that again she needed something else. Something more. So from there she moved on to experience life with people that she met that she said could offer her things that were appealing to someone her age and experienced life with them. Honestly, until her death I did not know she married or that she had dated Bryan, since she had left at 17. I heard they dated but that was the first I heard that it was since 17. The important thing though is that I hear that they were great together and did great things together. From what I've read and been told, Bryan made Ashley laugh, spent his time with her, took care of her, went and experienced different activities and places with her, built a home with her, and spent his days showing her how much he loved her. So even though she took a different path (or paths) at 17 years of age to experience the different lives she talked about in her letter, she ended up loving, living with, and marrying a man who gave her the same life she had growing up with me, her mom. And for that I will be forever grateful because that means she was (and felt) loved, valued, cared for, important, special (just to name a few) and that's all I ever wanted for her along with her happiness. She accomplished alot at a young age and passed away far too soon, but she found someone that made her happy and gave her the love that she deserved and together they accomplished things that alot of people at their age would give up on. She is an inspiration and she will always be loved and missed.