KUSA — The reminders of her are everywhere, from her sweet 10-year-old smile to her favorite color.
“She’s still a big presence in our life,” said Christine Ridgeway, Jessica’s grandmother. “Her picture is everywhere, we all still wear purple. She may not be physically present, but she’s still with us. Her spirit is still with us.”
On Oct. 5, 2012, Jessica Ridgeway was kidnapped on her way to school and killed.
“I want people to know that tragedy happens and you can’t just cut off your life and stop doing things,” her mom Sarah Pindell-Ridgeway said. “Yes, it's hard, it's the hardest thing that anybody can possibly do is to move forward, but you have to do it. You can't just stop doing things because your child's gone.”
Pindell-Ridgeway got married last year and on Oct. 15, 2017, Jessica became a big sister.
“(Her name is) Anna Christine Pindell-Ridgeway,” Pindell-Ridgeway said. “Her and her sister share the same middle name. She loves her hands, she recently found her tongue, that's her new favorite.
“She has Jessica's nose, her eyes are blue, different blue than Jessica's,” she added.
I think Jessica would be enamored.”
The family said Jessica is ever-present in their lives … and in the life of her baby sister.
“We talk to Jessica and I think she (Anna) kind of turns her head, sometimes she looks like she's talking to somebody over in the distance,” Pindell-Ridgeway said. “I think her sister definitely comes and visits and leaves her little sparkle around.”
Mom and grandma say they'll tell Anna all about Jessica's sparkle as soon as she's old enough.
“I think I'm mostly going to say she has a big sister that left before she was born,” Pindell-Ridgeway said.
They want to raise her without fear.
“I'm going to try not to let what happened overshadow how I raise Anna,” Pindell-Ridgeway said. “I don't want her to be smothered a little bit. I want her to have her own little life.”
They want a life full of love with her sister ever-present.
“She definitely has an extra special angel watching over her,” Pindell-Ridgeway said.
