LAKEWOOD—
"Life can be taken from us in instant And then all that is left is the good works that we have done in our life time, whether that lifetime is 100 years or 22 years and 239 days," says her sister Jordan Hightower.Hundreds turned out for her memorial in Lakewood. It's been five days since rescuers found her body in the crumbled wreckage of an orphanage in Haiti. In the crowd a special friend. Rachel Pruysynski was with Molly at that orphanage when the earthquake hit. She says what will be so hard for her is the guilt that she survival when her friend did not.
"That will be the hardest part, is feeling like I somehow made it out and she didn't and what that will mean in terms of the pressure that I will put on myself for the rest of my life," says Pruysynski.
Rachel says she was with molly just 20 minutes before the quake hit... but she went up stairs to check her email - while molly took a nap. All she remembers is rescuers pulling her out, and bringing her to the embassy. ow, she's left with a cut above her eye, a cast on her arm ...and memories of a friend who she says will inspire her - and others - for the rest of their lives.
In one of many YouTube videos posted by Molly in Haiti you see and hear her speaking softly, sweetly to a Haitian child. In her voice, you hear the warmth, the love, the realization that this was right
"And, this girl at 22-years-old dedicated a large amount of her life to these kids," says Doug Nesbitt, who is a family friend and worked with Molly's father.
Molly Hightower grew up in Port Orchard, graduated from the University of Portland, then headed straight to Haiti in June with a group called "Friends of The Orphans" to volunteer for a year.
It didn't take long for her passion to become her world - a world filled with happiness and heartache.
"We're talking about the orphaned, mentally disabled, some of them couldn't even get out of bed. I think a typical day they would lose three of them a day," says Nesbitt.
In her blog, Molly shared her experiences; caring for abandoned children, helping special needs kids and starting a special project that now her family and friends have vowed to complete.
"This started around Thanksgiving, says Terry Wilson, President of Steel Service Aerospace, "a group of people in Haiti were talking about the problem of no shoes for the orphans."
First school kids sent them, then friends, then the shoes came from everywhere - sometimes a pair - sometimes just one shoe.
"There are a lot of individuals, unfortunately, out there that only needs one shoe," says Wilson. "It didn't take long to get this many shoes, I suspect it won't take long to get a container of shoes. I think we could all feel pretty good of sending that down.
The last entry on Molly's blog was posted by her family the day her body was found. They write: In Haiti she found unconditional love, and a second family and it made her smile.
It's a mission straight from her heart now reborn in her memory.
"For us, this is a very small thing for us to do in comparison to what she's already done in her short life," Nesbitt.
Molly's family and friends are also raising money for generators,medical care and then to rebuild the orphanage. Q13 FOX News is also working directly with the family and friends of Molly Hightower to help carry on her mission. In addition to raising money for the charity she poured her heart into people can take part in the shoe project.
