Among family and friends, eighth-grader Lilly Glaubach was a shining light who made those around her smile whenever she walked into the room. Her personality, complemented by her signature ripped jeans and oversized sweaters, created an environment where everyone felt special. Whether it was at a YMCA summer camp, in the kitchen with her father, at the mall with friends, in the family room waltzing with her golden retriever, or within the confines of her sketchbook, she impacted people and animals everywhere she went.
Lilly passed away peacefully in her sleep at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital Aug. 28 due to injuries she sustained in a hit-and-run accident.
“She smiled. She had a great smile that lit up her whole face and lit up the whole room. Everybody was happy when she was around,” Lilly’s dad, Howard Glaubach, said.
Together, Lilly, Howard, and Lilly’s brother Peter would cook and travel in long car rides to the northeast. He recounted how Lilly’s love for animals arose from a young age and would shine through in some rather humorous
displays.
“I remember she had caught five of them [lizards] and taken them into her room and let them free, because she closed her door so they couldn’t get out of the room. And so naturally, you just wanted a lizard farm in her room,” Howard said as he smiled. “That’s how long she’s loved animals, playing with animals. She had all the little bug catchers to catch them and make a home for them and put the leaves and things like that.”
As Lilly got older, her love for animals only grew.
“She would sit in her bedroom on the floor because if the cats were huddled on her bed, she didn’t want to disturb them,” Sarah Alexander, Lilly’s mother, said.
When she wasn’t spending time with her four-legged friends, Lilly also spent a great deal of time honing her art skills. Around Lilly’s room, various multimedia artworks lie in sketchbooks; some of her favorites are displayed on a bulletin board. Down the hall, her stepbrother Marshall has drawings full of Pokemon characters she drew for him attached to his door.
“She just took time to draw all his favorite characters and put them on little sticky notes in the back of his door. She was a really good big sister,” Sarah said.
Always working on a project, art was Lilly’s favorite class in school, and she longed to have a career in art.
“She just absolutely loved art. She drew everything. My favorite things that I have left are the pictures that she drew of me,” Howard said.
Haley Brown, Lilly’s art teacher at Pine View, watched over the years as Lilly blossomed into a young artist.
“She was a lovely little artist. Definitely was. She would start a lot of projects and get really close to finishing them but always kind of changed her mind at the end. But she was just really, really nice to have in class. She was a hard worker. Just a little spot of sunshine,” Brown said.
Along with art, Lilly had discovered another passion: civics. After taking civics in seventh grade, law piqued Lilly’s interest, and she wanted to become a prosecuting attorney.
“I was telling her, you know, ‘Prosecutors don’t usually make a lot of money,’ and she’s like, ‘I don’t care about that. I want to do what’s right. I feel like being a prosecutor would be great because I could make a difference,’” Sarah said.
In the classroom, Lilly was an engaged, wonderful student to have. Having attended Southside Elementary before coming to Pine View in sixth grade, the initial change was difficult. However, she was still able to manage the new workload and schedule. Her stamina and dedication were noticed by Carol LaVallee, who taught her Civics and spurred her ambition of going into law.
“She was somebody that I feel would change the world in a positive manner, by maybe becoming something law driven or maybe even something in human rights, I could totally see her doing that. Making a difference that way… We lost somebody that would have really impacted the community quite a lot,” LaVallee said.
English teacher Stacy Burkett similarly witnessed that potential and felt that Lilly was incredible to have in the classroom when she taught her in sixth grade.
“She just was very mature in some ways. She would come at lunch a lot of times, and she’d just come to chat. I would sometimes forget that I was talking to a sixth-grader because she had just this personality. She was just kind of beyond her years,” Burkett said.
At Pine View, Lilly had long days; oftentimes she would have to commute to her mother’s office in the morning to catch the bus to Pine View and would then return in the afternoon, making it home in the evening. When he could, her stepfather, Paul Alexander, picked her up early, and she would fall asleep in the car. Each time, Paul would take a selfie with her as she snoozed, and it became a tradition of sorts.
“She caught me once, where she curled up. She grabbed my arm and nuzzled up with me, and I thought she was asleep. So I’m taking my selfie with her. And she caught me, and I have a picture of her just smirking… And actually, my work colleagues made a little blanket for us. I told her I would have enough to fill a three-hour slideshow when she graduated from Pine View that I would just put on for her graduation — pictures of me laughing at her sleeping,” Paul said.
Whether it was at a YMCA summer camp, in the kitchen with her father, at the mall with friends, in the family room waltzing with her Golden Retriever, or within the confines of her sketchbook, she impacted people and animals everywhere she went.
At school, Lilly had a tight-knit group of friends, so close that she often could be found chatting with them over the phone and convincing them to watch anime with her — despite the fact none of them were originally interested in
it.
“She’s a very passionate person. If you’re her friend, she doesn’t care. She’ll come up, she’ll run to you, she’ll hug you and she’ll scream your name… One time I saw her at the mall, and she’s like, ‘Charlotte!’ And then I turned around and I saw her,” eighth-grader Charlotte White, one of Lilly’s close friends, said. “I still really don’t think that she’s gone sometimes.”
“Honestly, she helped me a lot throughout middle school. She was just such a fun friend. Like you didn’t have to go through drama with her. You can hang out with her. Anyone can, and she would go along with it,” eighth-grader Niya
Bobbin said.
“She couldn’t care less about what people said about her,” eighth-grader Charles Shoemaker said. “She gave you the truth about everything… She taught me to be confident, to be who you are.”
“I started talking to her and she was just like this person I could go to for anything. She gave me advice and she just talked to me about literally anything. She was just a good friend in general… She made a positive impact on everyone she talked to,” eighth-grader Kiana Cullen said.
Speaking with her friends and family, it’s clear that Lilly was special. They all talked about the positivity and kindness she carried with her everywhere she went.
“I know she knows how much we all loved her. It was a constant, daily conversation all the time, how much I loved her. We loved her. How proud we were of her, how great she was. And she would say the same back,” Sarah said. “I don’t think she ever doubted. And I feel fortunate to have had such a wonderful time — 13 years with such a wonderful person.”
Even though she’s gone, her family and friends continue to remember and celebrate her life.
“I love you. I miss you and I always will… I love you. Always, always, always,” Howard said through tears.
An abridged version of this article appears in print on Dec. 16, 2022, News, Page 1, of The Torch with the headline: Remembering Eighth-Grader Lilly Glaubach.
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