Alexandria Romeo: Empowered

We were moved by Alexandria’s story, and clearly we’re not the only ones – more than 200 people have left messages in her online Guest Book.

We at Legacy were moved by Alexandria’s story, and clearly we’re not the only ones – more than 200 people have left messages in her online Guest Book. Contributor Alana Baranick reports on the short life, sudden death, and touching legacy of Alexandria Danielle Romeo.

Alexandria Danielle Romeo had been plagued by epileptic seizures since she was 13. Romeo and her mother, Nipal Bellmonde, "were out of town on a mother-daughter weekend when Bellmonde found her daughter slumped in a car, blue, with foam pouring from her mouth."

She would later be diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy, a seizure disorder "that would leave her living in a constant state of caution," wrote Kayla Bell in an obituary for the Victoria (Texas) Advocate. The seizures could be triggered by florescent lighting, television, certain beats of music, and even artificial sweeteners, according to the obit.

On a good day, she'd have 10 seizures. More often, 20. On the day before Thanksgiving 2011, Romeo "woke up and got dressed to go to the minimum-wage job that doctors said she'd never be able to have," Bell wrote.

She had a seizure, hit her head, and never woke up.

Romeo’s online guest book in the Houston Chronicle The note goes on to share a Thanksgiving message from Romeo's mother: "Please reach over and touch the one you love. You never know if that gift will be taken away."

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This post was contributed by Alana Baranick, a freelance obituary writer. She was the director of the Society of Professional Obituary Writers and chief author of Life on the Death Beat: A Handbook for Obituary Writers before she passed away in 2015.