Victoria Eckholm

Victoria Eckholm came into this world and was handed the gift of wonder. She grew up beneath the nurturing skies of O'ahu, Hawaii, where her childhood was nothing short of magical. She moved through those early years with all her senses alive - the salt of the Pacific in the air, the colors of the island flowers, and butterflies pressing themselves into memory, the feel of the world offering itself to this young girl who was determined to know it fully. Books became her second home, each one a doorway into another universe she could inhabit, question, and carry with her. Hers was a childhood of possibilities, an open horizon with every reason to believe the best was still ahead.

In her twenties, tragedy arrived without warning. The life she had known shifted beneath her feet, leaving her with mental and emotional disabilities that forced her to relearn what a new adulthood would be, to rebuild herself from entirely new ground. It was a loss that might have extinguished a lesser spirit. Instead, Victoria discovered that the most essential parts of her - her curiosity, her warmth and compassion, her wit, and her love of stories - could not be taken. Her intelligence endured, her heart remained undiminished.

Victoria refused to live in black and white. She inhabited a world alive with color, approached life with whimsy and wonderment, and wore her emotions openly - her free spirit never ashamed of feeling deeply. When she entered a room, she brought her smile with her, and those who were there will tell you the whole space seemed to lift. She had a way of making people around her feel that the world was a little more interesting, a little more tender, simply because she was in it.

Her passions were as vivid as her spirit. She was a fierce protector of children and their innocence - a cause she held close to the deepest part of herself. Her empathy was boundless, extending naturally to those who needed it most. And she never stopped reading. Every book she opened was an act of devotion, a conversation with the world she had always been so hungry to relate to.

Victoria's family was there for her throughout her life - steadfast and strong. Victoria knew how vital they were throughout her life. Family called her Vicki as only close ones could - per Vicki! Her mother, Dixie Eckholm, and her father, Rollyn Eckholm, and her freedom through their boundless love and understanding through difficult disabilities. Her brother, Garret Eckholm, tragically lost his life as a young adult. She remained close to him throughout his life and spoke of him with deep love, carrying his memory and the ache of his loss with her until her own passing. Her parents passing, each one another devastating blow to her own life's anchors. Victoria is survived by her brother, Rollyn C. Eckholm Jr., who holds a memory of her: When Rollyn was only three years old, it was Victoria who first told him about God and all His Glory. That early gift of faith - offered by a child to a smaller child, with all the sincerity a young heart can give - is the very reason Rollyn believes God to this day. Of all the things Victoria gave the world, this profound act of love may have been among her greatest.

As life began for Victoria among the best of memories, so it shall end there. Her ashes will join those of her younger brother at Hanauma Bay and Makapu'u Point on the island of O'ahu, Hawaii - the place where her wonder was first born, the place where the ocean holds everything gently, and the colors never fade.