Emily's Legacy: Still Touching Others 💖

Inspiring Message from Emily’s Family

(The following message is directly from Emily’s father and contains a few precious moments he and Emily’s mother have heard from others and experienced themselves recently.)

These last few weeks, which marked the second Easter and the first new Pope election since her passing, have produced more stories about the continuing impact Emily’s life is having on people. Here’s a few examples. 

On Good Friday, the Sunday Visitor published this article (preview article image below):

Image from “Our Sunday Visitor” article. Features “Jesus Carries His Cross As Part of Cross Way Station” by Karl Geiger

Then a few days later, we got a message (also out of the blue) from a friend who read her book for the first time. 

“Finished it in one sitting and It is incredible. It really showcases her heart, faith, humor and most of all her strength. I laughed, I shed a tear or two, and I was sucked in. … It will probably have me thinking for a while.”

That same day we got a message from Em’s Aunt Mary.  She and her daughter, who is running a 60-mile race for charity in England, was having lunch with one of their friends who is running to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis  since his son has it.  He mentioned how impressive and inspiring Em was—he had read Mary’s Facebook post about Em and had heard about her over the years. So they ended up talking about Em for a little while. 

That same week while at a blood draw, we saw a nun praying the rosary while waiting for some test results so we gave her Em’s book to read as we left.  She said how she was just thinking that she had a 2-hour wait and had forgotten to bring a book to read so it seems that it was meant to be that we were there and had a copy of Em’s book in our car to give to her.

These stories remind us that while Em’s physical presence is gone, she is certainly not forgotten as her message endures and continues to inspire others. 

Pick up a copy of Emily’s book:
Amazon
Ave Maria Press
Seton Shrine

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” - Ephesians 2:10

Special Edition: Reflection from Aunt Mary 📝

The following is from a wonderful Daily Gospel Reflection (run by the University of Notre Dame) that Emily’s Aunt Mary wrote on July 24th. She loved Emily dearly and was greatly inspired by her journey (and continues to love her still even in parting for the rest of this earthly life). Be blessed by her reflection on faithfulness.

In addition, there is an archive for other Daily Gospel Reflections from former ND Alumni as well as daily reflections in audio form.

Reflection

Mary Heilmann Becker ’87
ND Parent

My niece Emily DeArdo died at age 41 on New Year’s Eve 2023—a day she had long contemplated and prepared for.

“I’ve never doubted my faith,” Emily wrote. “But did I have courage? Did I trust Jesus? … That’s the slow-growing bloom of faith. Faith is the seed. But courage and trust? That’s the result of a lot of dark nights and lots of tears.”

Jesus asks us to have that bloom of faith in today’s gospel reading, and it was the essence of Emily. Diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at age 11 and given a projected life expectancy of 30 years, Emily could have had her faith snatched away by the birds of bitterness before it took root. Or, having survived this devastating diagnosis, Emily’s faith could have been scorched or choked by the medical trials she endured over the years—the near-fatal bout of tuberculosis, the double lung transplant, and the loss of her hearing.

But Emily proved to be rich soil that produced a fruitful, faithful life. She lived exuberantly, with courage and trust in God. She competed on “Jeopardy!” as the show’s first cochlear implant recipient, blazing a path for others to follow. She wrote the book Living Memento Mori: My Journey Through the Stations of the Cross, published by Ave Maria Press in 2019, explaining how her faith guided her through many challenges and offering inspiration to readers struggling with their own crosses.

“We wait for the second coming of Christ—we wait for our own resurrection,” Emily wrote. “And as we do this, we show the world that even when God appears silent, we will still love him. We will still follow him. We will still be faithful as we wait.”

Whoever has ears ought to hear.

Matthew 13:1-9
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
“A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”