The 2-year-old had a contagious smile and hardly stopped moving. She loved doughnuts and ice cream and enjoyed singing the solos from the movie “Frozen.” She was determined — always trying to figure out ways to do things without help.
And A’Nyia Patton was “majorly loved,” remembers Mashai Hall, the toddler’s 20-year-old sister.
A’Nyia was found not breathing in an apartment fire last week in Council Bluffs. She died on Friday.
Her mother, Michelle Patton, 37, remained in serious condition Saturday at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Firefighters were dispatched to the blaze at 228 Harrison St. on Wednesday morning. Just minutes after the fire was reported, a fire crew arrived and started attacking the fire and searching the apartment. The crew found the mother and daughter in a bedroom. Neither one had a pulse when crews started CPR.
Hall, who is also Michelle Patton’s daughter, said she is trying to be her mother’s “rock” as she recovers.
“I’m drained,” Hall said. “I love my mother to the moon and back. More than all the stars in every galaxy. Same as my sister.”
She will remember watching all her favorite cartoons with A’Nyia and singing her to sleep.
The toddler had so much fun energy, Hall said, that “you couldn’t help but feel better or smile” around her.
“She was my little best friend.”
