Nearly a week ago, a 2-year-old lboy was hit and killed by a Jeep at a Holland State Park campground.
FOX 17 spoke to the boy's mother, who says her son Elliot was full of life and laughter.
“Just like the most joyful little 2-year-old boy you’ve ever met in your entire life. Like, he just loved life,” Rachel Kleyn Ward said.
Rachel Kleyn Ward, Elliot's mother, spoke to FOX 17 over Zoom from the family home in Indiana. Rachel is originally from Grandville.
“He was barely 2 and a half and he knew his entire alphabet upper case and lower case; he knew all his colors; he could count to twenty. He loved to learn. He loved to be outside. He loved to play,” Kleyn Ward said.
Rachel says the family was on their annual trip to Holland State Park, like so many other families, when the unthinkable happened.
“He’d been playing with us by some hammocks across the street. I believe he saw my dad and some of our family on the other side of the little road there, if you can even call it a road there between campsites, and he just kind of took off to go play with his cars, and it was just bad timing,” Rachel said.
Now, loved ones remember the little boy who loved stirring up the birds during the family's trip to the beach.
“We caught him chasing this huge flock of sparrows; he’d run up to them and go 'argh' and they’d go everywhere,” Kleyn Ward said.
Elliot was the middle child.
“We have a 4-year-old, and [Elliot] was 2, and I have a 1-year-old as well,” Kleyn Ward said.
This loss is especially hard for Elliot's big sister.
“They were best friends. They did everything together,” Rachel said. “She understands that he was buried. She keeps saying that he was planted, which is very true. He was planted. And ... she’s asked to visit him already. So we’ve done that."
Rachel says she's grateful for the two RNs in the family, who started CPR on Elliot right away. Emergency services were there in minutes.
“We rode from Holland State Park to Zeeland Hospital, which anyone local knows that’s some of the busiest roads in Holland. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office had every single intersection the entire way closed for us," Rachel said.
Ultimately, despite doing everything possible, it was too late. Elliot was pronounced dead at the hospital on Aug. 22.
Rachel says it's her faith that's pulling her through this loss — her faith, and the never-ending support her family has received with more than $14,000 donated to the family's GoFundMe at last check.
“It’s been the worst moments of our life, honestly. But the outpouring of support, and the showing of the best of humanity this week, is something you have to acknowledge,” Rachel said.
The incident is being investigated by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office's traffic unit. Anyone with information is asked to contact them.
