Donna Quirke HornikFollow

Donna Lubell Quirke Hornik died peacefully at home surrounded by her loving and heartbroken parents, Sheila Quirke and Jeremy Hornik.

Donna was diagnosed with cancer at twenty months old. Despite an early prognosis of two to three months, she thrived for ten times that, living joyfully, gracefully. In her too brief life, Donna danced on the stage of the Auditorium Theater, consumed a mountain of macaroni and cheese, worried the winter trees were lonely and cold without their leaves and finally enjoyed the big girl swing all by herself.

She was a brave and thoughtful girl who endured many kinds of treatment for most of her life. She could bounce back from surgery, chemo, radiation and stem cell transplant to live and play. The cancer ended her life, but it could not stop her living while she was there. Even after we had gone on past treatment to palliative care, she still had the energy to go to school for the first time... and loved it. She lived until she died.

Donna was singular. She loved three books before bed, her weekly dance class with Miss Shawn, making friends at preschool, the color black and telling her baby brother Jay he was too little to eat eggs. Through her website at CaringBridge.org, Donna's story touched many. She will be missed.