Ruby Hanson

Ruby Hanson, age 7 of Woodbury, passed away on December 24, 2014 at the St. Paul Children's Hospital.

Funeral service will be 11 am, Tuesday, December 30, 2014 at the Cottage Grove United Church of Christ, 7008 Lamar Ave. S., Cottage Grove. Visitation will be Monday from 4-8 pm at Kok Funeral Home, 7676-80th Street South, Cottage Grove and also one hour prior to the service at the church on Tuesday. Interment will be in the Cottage Grove Cemetery.

To honor her life, friends and family are encouraged to wear bright colored clothing to the visitation and service.

A tribute:

On January 7th, 2007, God had blessed Debra Hanson and Bryan Hakkila with a beautiful daughter, and He blessed her brother Hunter with an affectionate little sister. They had named her Ruby, but unlike the precious minerals we seek out every single day, she was the only gem in the world worth more than anything else combined. She was a blessing.
She was strong. The butterfly had only confirmed her undying strength to continue fighting because those wings served as a beacon of hope and a symbol to never give up.

And Ruby never did give up. She never gave up for herself and she never gave up to the people around her; the people that she loved and the people who loved her. Even when she was diagnosed with Dravet's Syndrome, a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy, her passions in life and her love for her family and friends had only grown stronger. There was nothing in this world that would knock her down, just like nothing would knock down a Monarch butterfly as it fluttered south. Not even the strong winds could determine its fate.

There were several things that Ruby had loved. She loved the movie Frozen and she probably related to Elsa in more ways than one, knowing firsthand what it is like to have something that her friends and family does not. She loved bright and colorful rainbows that arched across the sky after a rainstorm and she loved going to the beach to feel the waves crashing against her legs as the water kicked up sand in between her toes. How the simplest things in life had made her giggle and it was during these moments she reminded us that she was not different and that there was more to this world than living a life in fear. She reminded us that happiness and laughter was the only cure and the only medicine that gave her hope. She gave us hope.

She fought to have things her way until the very end but even then she never lost her battle. She won them on the morning of Christmas Eve, 2014 when the angels descended down from Heaven and took her to be with the other Children of God for Jesus had said: "Let the little Children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14.

Ruby is now living without any pain and she can do the many things without limitations as she skips and giggles and dances with jubilation. She is right beside us no matter where we turn, whether we are in the light or in the dark. She is right beside her brother Hunter listening to him read. She is right beside her parents no matter which way they turn. She is beside us in everything that is beautiful, from a butterfly fluttering past us, to the mountains climbing into the heavens, to the trees swaying in the wind, or even a leopard frog resting on top of a lily pad. These were her final wishes this past Christmas Day, to find the same beauty and happiness in life as she saw it. She will always be remembered and she will always be loved.
--Noel David Dokken