Elk Grove Village toddler inspires outpouring of love and generosity
Wearing a coral party dress and matching sandals, her long brown hair brushed back from her face and her bright eyes darting, 3-year-old Allayna Tripp was the center of attention at her birthday party Saturday in her parents' Elk Grove Village home.
Aaron and Amy Tripp stood by their daughter's side, greeting dozens of family members and friends who dropped off gifts and showered Ally with kisses.
Parents chased after small children. In the street, members of the Elk Grove Fire Department gave kids tours of the hook-and-ladder truck and ambulance. In the backyard, guests gathered beneath bright balloons and paper lanterns and feasted on roast pig and homemade potato salad. There was music and cake and presents.
It was a typical toddler's birthday party. But Ally Tripp is not a typical toddler.
Ally was born prematurely on July 12, 2013, with microcephaly, a condition resulting in an abnormally small head. In 2014, doctors diagnosed brain atrophy meaning her brain is slowly degenerating. She is blind, with limited motor function and no mobility.
Unable to swallow, Ally uses a feeding tube. She also has epilepsy. She used to suffer between 200 and 300 seizures a day, before medical marijuana reduced the number to fewer than 50.
She requires 24-hour care. Her parents and nurses do not take their eyes off her. Literally.
In many ways, says Amy Tripp, Ally is like a newborn.
She can hear. Her parents say she especially likes new voices.
She smiles. She moves her arms and head.
And she purses her lips to receive kisses, which her parents supply daily by the thousands.
Like all only daughters, Ally Tripp is a daddy's girl. And she is much loved.
"Every year she's alive, we're going to celebrate," Aaron says.
"She loves to be cuddled and played with," adds her soft-spoken mother, a former preschool teacher.
The little girl has met just about every firefighter, paramedic and emergency medical technician in the village. They've toured her house, know where her room is and where her oxygen is stored in case of an emergency.
"For a community to do that, it's unheard of. To know we have that support ... There are no words," said Aaron Tripp, a prototype developer for RTC in Rolling Meadows.
The generosity of friends - and strangers - has been overwhelming said Aaron. In the week since the couple established a GoFundMe site, at gofundme.com/AllaynaTripp, they've raised more than $18,000 for Ally's care. Her celebration, says Aaron, is in part a thank-you to their benefactors.
Among them is John Wildman, 72, Aaron Tripp's retired co-worker, who has cooked hundreds of meals for the family over the last three years.
"I freeze everything; all they have to do is nuke it," says Wildman, adding "I do it out of love for him."
The Tripp family inspires not just love, but admiration.
"I've never seen parenting like they provide," says Aaron's mother Julie Tripp, her voice catching and a tear in her eye. "Ally supplies so much love for all of us ... we're a closer family because of her."
• Staff writer Christopher Placek contributed to this report.