12-year-old writes future self before dying

- [ more + ] Memorial for 12-year-old Johnson City
girl Taylor Scout Smith Johnson City girl's letter to
her future self makes
national headlines after her
death Posted: Jan 08, 2014 12:59 AM Updated: Jan 10, 2014 7:49 PM By Allie Hinds, Reporter - bio | email Wednesday night, friends and family of 12-year-old Taylor
Scout Smith gathered to celebrate her life, but
her impact is being felt around the world. Taylor, a student at Liberty Bell Middle School
in Johnson City, passed away Sunday from
complications with pneumonia, leaving behind
a mom, dad, and older brother. "Initially it's shock, and waves of depression,
and hoping that it's not real, and hoping that
every time you take a nap or go to sleep you
find out it wasn't real," Taylor's Dad Tim Smith
said. On January 5th Smith and his wife Ellen faced
a reality no parent can ever prepare for. "If it's God's time, it's God's time, and he loved
her more than we could ever love her. So
much so that he said 'come on.'" Smith said.
"A lot of people are probably wondering why
it's so easy for a father whose just lost his
daughter to say something like that, to not curse God, to not hate God, the only thing I
can say is that right now it's easy for me to
trust God because my baby girl trusted him." Since Sunday, Smith said family and friends
have filled he and Ellen's hearts with joy telling
stories about Taylor. "You see all the other things that she's done
that you didn't know about, things at youth
group, things at school, things where she just
touched people's lives in ways that are
unbelievable," Smith said. "I'm more
determined now to find what God's will is, and right now you're even seeing a glimpse of what
God's will is, all the people that are being
touched by what's going on, you know if even
that changes the course of someone's life I
know Taylor would say it's worth it." "She's just a perfect example of what it is to
love God and to love people," Smith said."She
showed me how God loves, she didn't see
anything on the exterior she only saw the
inside and what was best about you." Taylor's Mom and Dad have been going
through boxes from her room, filled with
poems, journals and letters of encouragement
she'd written to people but hadn't given them
yet. One of those letters is to someone who will
never get to open it. "To be opened by Taylor Smith on April 13,
2023 only unless said otherwise," Smith read
from a letter written by 12-year-old Taylor just
months ago to her 22-year-old self. The letter reads, "Dear Taylor, how's life? Life
is pretty simple 10 years in your past, I know
I'm late for you, but I'm writing this early, so
congratulations on graduating high school, if
you didn't, go back and keep trying, get that
degree…Do you have your own place yet? If we're in college what are we majoring in? Right
now I want to be a lawyer." The letter goes on with words of wisdom and
advice beyond her twelve years. The last line reads, "Well, I think that's all, but
remember it's been 10 years since I wrote this.
Stuff has happened good and bad, that's just
how life works and you have to go with it." Advice she intended to look back on, advice
her parents say now keeps them looking
forward. Taylor's mom Ellen Smith works at George
Washington Elementary School in Kingsport.
When people she works with at school heard
about Taylor, they come up with the money to
completely cover the cost of the funeral.