A mourning community of baseball players and parents as well as friends and family gathered Thursday evening at the PCMA ball fields to honor Lucy Nash.
In a Tuesday Facebook post, Lucy’s father, Ryan Nash, said his daughter has irreversible loss of brain function. The Cairo Elementary School fourth grader collapsed on the first day of school on Aug. 7 after her heart stopped beating.
At Thursday evening’s ceremony, her grandfather, Wynn Eckels, told the Hendersonian that he didn’t want to say much about his granddaughter for fear that he wouldn’t be able to get much out. But he did say that the outpouring of support from the community and even from those in surrounding counties has helped the family deal with the grief.
“The whole community has been amazing,” said Eckels, who held Lucy’s pink helmet, emblazoned with “Nash” on the back, as a memento to remember and honor his granddaughter.
On Monday, thousands of students, teachers, staff, employees and others all over the county wore pink or painted their pinky fingernails pink and posted their pictures with the hashtag #pinkiesupforlucy as a show of support.
But it hasn’t stopped there. Dozens of local businesses pledged to donate a percentage of their sales on days in the past week.
Additionally, a GoFundMe account has been set up by Lucy’s aunt, Johnance Strueh, to help defray medical costs for the family. To find it, go to gofundme.com and search #pinkiesupforlucy. And a fund has been set up at Field & Main bank.
From the stories told Thursday evening, Lucy was a spirited player, always smiling—even after a strikeout—but always determined to get better.
“She had the most dedication and determination of any kid I knew,” said umpire Brock Buckman.
And she was spunky.
A coach of hers, Brandon Jones, said on the first day he ever coached her, he tried to get her to change her “weird swing.” They spent all practice working on it.
The next practice, she came up to Jones and quipped, “My swing is good enough. You just stay in your lane.”
After the speeches, a banner featuring two photos of Lucy—one of her in her baseball uniform, one of her showing off painted fingernails—was placed under the scoreboard on the centerfield fence. Then attendees were asked to get a pink ribbon and tie it to the outfield fence.
Lucy’s obituary can be read here.
