Our Story
Our home in Waxahachie, Texas was being remodeled, and we had lost the
lease on our rental house in April so we moved in with my mother in DeSoto,
Texas who happens to have a swimming pool in her back yard.   We had
admonished Chelsea time and time again to stay away from the swimming
pool, which she had done for a whole month.  She was afraid of the water, and
wouldn’t go anywhere off the top step even when someone was with her in the
summer.  The day of the accident, May 2, 2005 was just like any other day.  
Chelsea asked me “Mommy can I go play with “Sister” (her dog)?”  And I said
“Yes, but stay on the porch away from the swimming pool” and she said “Ok”
and went out to play.  I sat down in a chair right next to the glass doors and
started nursing Isabella.  After a few minutes I couldn’t hear Chelsea talking to
the dog, so I yelled her name she didn’t answer so I got up to look for her.


That moment will forever be etched in my memory when I got to the glass
door and saw her lying face down on the bottom of the swimming pool.  
Maternal instincts took over and I set Isabella on the floor and flew out the
door.  All I remember is hitting the top step of the pool and then grabbing her
and hauling her out of the water.  I laid her on the concrete next to the pool and
saw that she was blue around her mouth and eyes.  My main thought was “I
have to make my baby breathe” so I began CPR all the while screaming her
name and “God please don’t take my baby” I did about 4 rounds of CPR and
continued to turn her over on her side when she would expel the water and
vomit.  Then I grabbed her up and ran in the house to call 911.  Then I took her
back to the poolside so the rescue people could find me without having to
search the house.  I continued CPR until the first police officer on the scene
took over then the paramedics immediately after him.  I told them that I had to
get my newborn daughter and they told me to go on.  When I got in the house,
another of the firemen had picked Isabella up off the floor and was comforting
her.  I asked him to call my mother at work and he handed me the cell phone
and said “If you’ll dial the number I’ll talk to her” so I dialed and he talked to
her.  She headed straight to the first hospital to be with Chelsea.  I found the
next door neighbor in the front yard and asked him to call my husband at work,
not knowing that my husband had left an hour before to come home.  When A.
J. (our neighbor) came in the house, there was some kind of misunderstanding
and I grabbed the phone and was talking to James (my husbands boss) and
told him that Chelsea had fallen in the swimming pool and they were taking her
to the hospital.  He told me that William had left an hour before.  He works in
Corsicana, which is about an hour from my mother’s home so I figured that he’
d be home any time.  


They asked me if I wanted to ride in the ambulance with Chelsea to the
hospital, and I told them no because I had Isabella, and I just felt that they
could do more good without me in there being the hysterical mother.  So I
waited at home for William, and then found out that he’d had a flat tire about
10 minutes from home.  Eventually I got into the police car and went to
Charleton Methodist Hospital (in DeSoto) where they took her first to Care
Flight her to Children’s Medical Center in Dallas.  William got to the house
about 10 minutes after I left and was told by the neighbor that they had taken
Chelsea by Care Flight to Children’s so he headed straight for Children’s.  I
rode with my mother to Children’s and when I got there my entire family was
there, my mother, me, William, his mother and brother, my father, and my
grandmother; my mother was constantly trying to reach my step-father who
she finally got a hold of and he came immediately.  I finally got to go in and
see her, and it was horrible…but I knew that she was in the best possible place
to get care.  


They worked on her in the ER and then took her up to the ICU where she lived
on until Thursday morning at 1:37a.m.  She opened her eyes to her daddy and
me on Tuesday morning at about 3:30 a.m. and was moving her head around.  
But then her small body couldn’t fight off the inflammation in her lungs caused
by the water, and her daddy and I had to make a decision if we wanted them to
continue to try and save her or not if her heart stopped.  We talked and
decided that she was no longer there, and that she had let us know Tuesday
morning that she knew we were there and that she was leaving us to be with
Jesus.


So we decided to turn off the machines, my parents and my grandmother, and
William’s parents stayed with her as they turned the machines off; I personally
couldn’t handle it and left the room.  The nurses were wonderful, they asked
me if there was anything special we wanted, and I told them I wanted to hold
her, and some locks of her hair. After everything was taken off of her and they
had cleaned her up William and I went in and held our angel one last time then
he left and I stayed as the nurses came in to snip the locks of hair from her,
and they gave me 4 of them one for each of us, William, myself and Isabella.  
They took hand and feet print for me and gave me the two blankets that had
been with her, they put all of these things in a memory box and we left to go
home.


It’s been a long many days and nights since we lost our angel, but we know
that she’s around us always.  Isabella smiles at her all the time, and we see
things that we know are signs from God letting us know that our angel is ok
and with Him.
Chelsea Leighann Wilkins                 

WILKINS, CHELSEA LEIGHANN of Waxahachie, TX, Blessed our lives January 9,
2001. Became our guardian angel May 5, 2005. Survived by parents, William &
Leigh O'Dell; baby sister, Isabella Grace O'Dell; grandparents, Kenneth & Joann
Stripling, Wayne Wilkins, Benny & Cathy O'Dell; great-grandmother, Bobbie Wilkins;
great grandfather, Bruce Stripling; great-grandparents, Bill & Melba Montgomery;
aunts; uncles; cousins; and many friends. Funeral service 2:00 p.m. Monday, May 9,
2005 at Byrum Funeral Home Chapel, Lancaster. Burial in Edgewood Cemetery,
Lancaster, TX. Family will receive friends Sunday evening 6 to 8 at funeral home.
Memorials may be made to Children's Medical Center of Dallas or Ronald McDonald
House.