One day, Ashleigh called home from the fire station and asked what was for dinner.  Bean & Ham Soup was the reply from mom.  A little while later, Ashleigh showed up at the front door of the house with a whole group of firefighters behind her.  She had invited all of them over for dinner at the house.  Lori did her best to stretch the soup as far as it would go, and this began what became a deep and lasting friendship between the Roach family and the Valley Center Firefighters.   As John & Lori got to know the firefighters, their family was able to serve as an extension of the gratitude that the whole town of Valley Center feels for these dedicated servants of their community.

Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, all the holidays of the year – the firefighters were dearly loved and welcomed guests in John & Lori’s home.     This was all a result of this special little girl’s uncanny ability to make friends and reach out to others in love and kindness. 

John mentioned that one of his favorite sights was to see a large group of firefighters, all in uniforms, carrying little Easter baskets and searching for Easter eggs that the family had hidden around their home for the firefighters to discover.

Ashleigh always thought she was more grown up than her chronological age might indicate.   She never saw a problem with leaving the house by herself, and thinking that she was old enough to cross busy streets by herself, in spite of firm and clear commands from her parents to make sure older people helped her in crossing the roads.

One day Ashleigh had determined to cross Lake Wohlford Road all by herself.  When Warren, one of the firefighters, saw what she was about to do he told her to stop.  She did – and then Warren pulled the fire truck across the road and turned on the flashing lights to stop traffic so that Ashleigh could safely cross.

Ashleigh looked up to the firefighters as true heroes.  Over the years she learned how much they did and how important they are.   They were invited to, and attended, her school plays, and they never missed any of her band performances at the middle school and high school.    Various firefighters would be her favorites for months at a time. 

When Ashleigh entered high school, it was hard for her to make it over to the fire station as often, but their relationship was always close.  In her sophomore year, Ashleigh’s teacher would award points to students who could bring in photographs of themselves studying their math books under extreme conditions.  Ashleigh went over to the fire station and the result was a marvelous photograph of Ashleigh laid out like a severe trauma patient, complete with IV, C-Spine neck brace, and taped to a back board, yet clutching her math book in her hands.  She got an ‘A’ from her math teacher for this photograph.

As Ashleigh neared the age of 16, she started to put pressure on her parents to allow her to attend the prom.  She was not allowed to “date” until she turned 16, but they decided to allow her to go to prom, provided she was asked by a suitable young man who could face the scrutiny of dad, older brother, and a whole crew of protective firefighters.

Well, Ashleigh was asked by a most suitable and creative young man – Thomas Morningstar who hand painted a thirty foot long banner and hung it in the school courtyard that said “Ashleigh – Will you go to prom with me?” along with a space for her to sign ‘yes’ or ‘no’.  Ashleigh’s friends saw the banner and were thrilled to go get her and bring her over to see it for herself.

The only problem Thomas faced was that the limo driver would not drive down the difficult driveway to the Roach residence, so arrangements were made for Ashleigh to be picked up at the fire station, with the entire family and all the firefighters there to ‘encourage’ Thomas to take good care of Ashleigh.

Afterward Ashleigh told her mother that it was the perfect prom and that her date had told her “you were the most beautiful girl there.”

During Ashleigh’s junior year she loved all of her classes and all of her teachers -- she was more enthusiastic about school than ever.  She told her mom: “things are going so great in my life right now, I don’t want to grow up.”

When Homecoming came around this year, Ashleigh was thrilled to be asked to attend by a new student from Sweden, Alex Büchska.  And Alex was, of course, carefully scrutinized by Ashleigh’s family, and her firefighters.  Her homecoming dance made for one of the happiest days of her life.

There are so many things we loved about Ashleigh:

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