Virginia Larins Hollis

“This isn’t paradise Daddy. The only Paradise is in Heaven with God.”

-Virginia to her Dad while sitting on the beach at sunset,

20 days before she entered that eternal Paradise

Please support preserving Virginia's legacy by contributing to The Virginia Hollis Memorial Fund, which intends to pass on her gifts and passions to other children. Please contribute to www.virginiahollis.org 

Virginia Larins Hollis, named for both her mother and great-grandmother and her father, was born March 23, 2017, at 12:02 am, two minutes into the start of her parents’ 4th wedding anniversary. God called her home early on the morning of July 4th, after she had spent five blissful days swimming, playing, dancing, golfing, hiking, and bonding with new friends at Camp Mystic.

She became an angel much sooner than any of us wished, but wise beyond her years, she had true, abiding faith and an old soul. Virginia’s short, sweet life was blessed with abundant experiences and so much love and joy.

Virginia or “Yah Yah” as her little sister dubbed her, lived on a ranch outside of Bellville, Texas, with her Mom, Dad, and sister Siena right across the dirt road from her grandparents’, where her mother and aunts were raised. The easiest of babies, Virginia loved to laugh and had a quiet way of observing her world, even as a very young infant. Her family, friends, and Godparents celebrated her baptism as a child of Christ at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, and she wore the same hand-sewn dress made by her Nana for her mother’s baptism 29 years prior at the very same church.

Her toddler years were filled with butterflies and baking, flowers, muddy puddles, and treasure hunts with her cousin and bestie, Weston, and LOTS of arts and crafts and projects. Her hair grew into long, beautiful ringlets, and her little coiled pigtails bounced in the breeze when she’d explore outside… searching for flowers, fairies, rocks, and magic.

Virginia loved dressing up, tea parties, playing pretend, and babies, and when she was two and a half years old, her world was complete when she got her very own baby sister. She could get newborn “Senna” to smile even when her parents couldn’t, playing peek a boo and tickle games with her and her cousin Cate for hours. Despite the stress of a worldwide pandemic, those many long months were so bright watching the four cousins grow and explore in the freedom of the ranch.

She attended MDO at the Methodist Church and later St. Mary’s Episcopal Day School, where she met her lifelong best friends.

She continued learning in 1st and 2nd grade at Faith Academy of Bellville, where she thrived, and her confidence and joy in learning blossomed. Her teachers and friends there enriched her life in many amazing ways, and some of her favorite things were the Falcon center, piano lessons, art, and the chess club. During her summers, she enjoyed fun-filled weeks at Houston Oaks camp learning sports, swimming, searching for seashells, and charming her counselors and friends.

Her list of accomplishments is long for so short a life. But she took pride in sharing her gifts with others and having her hard work recognized. Her standout achievements include a 1st place painting award, her artwork being judged at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, riding Salt Valley solo in the ACYRA rodeo, staying with him when he bucked and “went bronco”, beating her mommy at chess, performing piano concerts in public, hitting golf balls over the creek and her incredible piano composition “Virginia’s Song”.

She was the most amazing big sister and an incredible friend.

Travel was also very important for her family, and Virginia was blessed to have many opportunities to explore her world in only eight years. She was quite the little adventurer, flying on her 1st airplane at only eight weeks old. As an eighteen-month-old, she spent two weeks in Italy and Germany and had the first of several visits to Cusano Mutri, Italy, to meet her Italian cousins in the town where her great-great-grandfather was born.

She loved visiting her grandparents, Lålli and Papo, her great-grandmother Nonna, and her Aunt Elin in Florida. She got to see New York City, her dad’s alma mater, Cornell in Ithaca, NY, and also spent two wonderful weeks at the Trapp family lodge, where her Daddy grew up going every year for Christmas.

UT Longhorn football games in burnt orange cheerleading outfits and being at the Beta Xi Kappa house were also special experiences. She cheered on the Houston Astros, SSC Napoli, and Bellville Brahmas every chance she got, but also loved cheering on all the teams and tribes of her family and friends.

Ultimately, she went to Europe a total of four times, spending over two and a half months of her life there. She was able to visit the birthplace of her Great Grandpa Elick’s family in the Czech Republic, the fourth generation of her family to do so, celebrated at two family weddings, and recently made cherished memories in the beautiful mountains of Austria.

She saw Mozart’s house and skipped through scenes from The Sound of Music, a family favorite. For all of us, the hills will be alive with the sound of her music, now and forever.

Virginia loved being active, trying new things, and creating. Just a few of her recent favorite activities were horseback riding, piano, tumbling, chess, art, cheer dance, ice skating, baking, golf, fishing, gardening, soccer, archery, hunting, and rock climbing.

A true cowgirl, Virginia had a special relationship with her grandpa, Poppy, who taught her about horsemanship, riding, ranching, and working cattle. She spent many hours with him in the barn or tack room, riding in the arena, and at the rodeo. Virginia loved working at the ranch and sharing her family’s heritage with guests at Texas Ranch Life. She often talked about how she and her cousin Weston would one day take over the ranch, working together just like her family does now.

As a testament to her wonderful teachers, family, and ranching community, Virginia wanted to be a Mom, Teacher, Composer, and Cowgirl when she grew up.

We will desperately miss getting to watch that happen, but are so grateful for every second we got to be in her presence. Her light will live on.

Virginia is survived by her parents, Lars and Lacey Hollis, and her adoring little sister, Siena. Blessed with a large and devoted family, she is also survived not only by her grandparents John and Taunia Elick and Brooke and Judith Hollis, her great grandmother Dorothy Sasso Moraski, her aunts and uncles, Elin Hollis, Ashlyn Elick and Justin Smith, Laramy and Craig Bauer, and her beloved cousins Weston and Cate Bauer, but also by her great aunts and uncles and many loving second and third cousins, as well as her Godparents, Taylor and Tyler Brady, Catherine Grell and John Evans.

STATEMENT OF GRATITUDE

The only thing that has sustained us during this horrible ordeal, other than our faith and Virginia’s bright light and love, is the incredible gratitude we feel for everyone supporting us. The sweet strangers sending us prayers and encouragement across the world, with no expectation of thanks or recognition, every wonderful person who knows us, our families and Virginia, yet carried their own grief, giving us the space to grieve privately.

There are no words to properly thank our incredible parents, sisters, family and all of our dear friends who in an instant made helping us survive and honoring Virginia, their full-time job. There was no task too big, no task too small: listening to us, organizing us, entertaining and caring for Siena better than she’s ever been cared for in her life, the countless local friends, businesses, and individuals we’ll never even know who reached out to our close connections to figure out things we might need, our whole community of people, who’ve found beautiful ways to touch our hearts, taking down trees, putting up fences, fixing things, weeding our garden… and those who opened up their homes to us, indefinitely, and the other parents going through this with us, yet still helping us…We are so grateful and have felt everyone’s prayers, love and support truly lifting us up.

And for all the first responders and volunteers that showed up to search for them, when we couldn’t, you will never know the depth of our gratitude. We can’t thank each and every person, but we would like to especially honor our friend, Alex Underwood, her horse, Levon and the unit of volunteers who joined the search for Virginia and all the victims.