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Naima Hill smiles with her daughter, Aveline “Avy” Hill, during coffe shop outing. Avy was 22 months old when she was killed in a car crash near Wichita Falls in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy Naima Hill<\/p>\n
Dallas mother Na\u00efma Hill still remembers the small ways her daughter stayed close.<\/p>\n
Aveline Lucille Hill, Avy for short, followed her into the bathroom. She wanted to be wherever her mother was \u2014 even if that meant eating breakfast on the bathroom floor while Hill got ready.<\/p>\n
Hill called her a \u201cbarnacle baby.\u201d<\/p>\n
Avy was not yet 2, but Hill said she already had a full personality: bright, attached, outdoorsy and stubborn in the way toddlers are when they are becoming themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was her own human already,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n
A trip to visit family in Oklahoma three years ago ended in a crash that killed Avy before her second birthday and changed Hill\u2019s reality forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Aveline “Avy” Hill poses for a photo. Her mother Naima Hill, has since launched Avy”s Sunshine Tribe in her honor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy Naima Hill<\/p>\n
Years later, Hill is still saying her name. Now the mother is inviting others in Dallas to say the names of the people they miss, too.<\/p>\n
Hill and her nonprofit, Avy\u2019s Sunshine Tribe, created Avy\u2019s Sunshine Kite Festival, set for June 20, 2026, at City Park in Dallas, a free family event where children and adults can decorate and fly kites in honor of loved ones they lost.<\/p>\n
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The Hill family vehicle is seen after a crash near Wichita Falls in 2023 that killed 22-month-old Aveline “Avy” Hill.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy Naima Hill<\/p>\n
The third-annual festival in June will allow families to make art together, eat, listen to music with a live DJ, and find a community space to gather.<\/p>\n
For Hill, the festival isn’t a way to move on; it’s her way to keep loving Avy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t ever want people to sugarcoat the loss,\u201d Hill said. \u201cIt\u2019s horrible. I\u2019m not turning anything into anything. But Avy was full of sunshine, and I want to focus on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
A trip that never happened<\/p>\n
Hill said she still remembers the details of the drive that changed her reality for life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In May 2023, Hill and her family were preparing for an overseas trip. They planned to fly to Paris, visit relatives in Europe, and later travel to Tunisia, where part of Hill\u2019s family is from.<\/p>\n
Before the trip, Hill, her husband and their children were driving from Dallas to meet her parents halfway near Wichita Falls. Her parents, who lived in Amarillo, were going to take the family dog, Kemosabe, while the Hills traveled.<\/p>\n
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The Hill family vehicle is seen after a crash near Wichita Falls in 2023 that killed 22-month-old Aveline “Avy” Hill.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesi Naima Hill<\/p>\n
Hill remembers the morning as unhurried. They stopped for coffee and gas. They made their way slowly on U.S. 287.\u00a0Then traffic stopped.<\/p>\n
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The Hill family dog “Kemosabe” peers into a vehicle window. He was killed along with Avy in a car crash near Wichita Falls in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy Naima Hill<\/p>\n
Hill said the family\u2019s car was hit from behind by a driver traveling 66 mph. Avy and Kemosabe were killed.<\/p>\n
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