Ashley suffered for more than a year from the brain tumor. One night during this time, Cassi was lying in bed with Ashley with only a candlelight in the room. Ashley said that Jesus and her guardian angel were in the room with them. Sensing her Mother's fear, Ashley turned to Cassi, and said, "Jesus said, don't be scared Mommy"
Ashley did not open her eyes during the week before she died except on one occasion. On August 30, 2016, two days before she passed away, Ashley opened her eyes looking upward toward heaven and was mouthing words with the most beautiful smile on her face. This seemed to be the same type of ecstasy that children experience in an apparition when they see our Blessed Mother Mary.
On the days before father's Day 2016, Cassi had been asking Jesus, "Do you hear me, do you hear my prayers?" The day before Father's Day she took a nap. She had a very vivid dream of a man named Ishmael who was trying to lead people to escape over a difficult mountain. They were captured and Ishmael was severely beaten. His friends were pulling his bleeding body into a cave to lay it down. One of his many friends said to him," Just remember how much suffering there is on earth, the reward is that much better in Heaven." Cassi was not aware that the name Ishmael means "God listen." He is also the first son of Abraham.
A little over a year after Ashley's passing, Cassi went on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, Bosnia Herzegovina. While Cassi was praying at the Blue Cross on Apparition Hill, Blessed Mother Mary spoke to Casssi that it was her speaking to Ashley before she departed from this life. Cassi was also told to not consider Ashley's passing as a loss, but instead give her to heaven, which Cassi did at the top of Cross Mountain. Since her experience in Medjugorje, Cassi's bitterness toward the passing of Ashley is gone and instead she is left with a feeling of peace.
