Jory Lin Heaton's Obituary
Jory Lin ("Leen") Heaton brought joy to our world on his birthday 11/22/2016 in Provo Utah as the first-born of his parents, Thomas and Summer. As a baby who brought two people, families, languages and cultures together, he was and is deeply loved by many. Soon after his first birthday, his parents and family members noticed he was experiencing subtle, brief lapses of consciousness, and he was eventually diagnosed with a rare genetic, epileptic disorder. Out of the expertise and care of his medical family, a medication was found to help him control his seizures, and he was able to receive early, life-altering therapies. His therapists were diligent and caring and often brought out his smiles and laughter alongside his development. His mother courageously advocated for him. Family members and friends gathered around Jory’s special soul to support him, and also to be supported by him.
Despite his physical struggles, Jory brings an abundance of love, growth, and joy to all the people into whose heart he crawled. And after 2 years of crawling, Jory likely became the fastest crawler around. Growing up, he went through phases of loving oranges, sweet potato, cream of wheat, and admiring his beautiful face and eyes in the mirror. Early on, he discovered his fascination, talent and mastery in spinning objects, including anything round on a hard surface. Instead of sitting on the sit-n-spin to spin himself, he loved to pick up one side and send it twisting around on its side. Jory also appreciated the outdoors, admiring nature on family walks and especially swinging at the park. While his words were unintelligible to our ears, he loved making sounds with his mouth to express joy, sadness, excitement, thoughtfulness, pain and love. He also reveled in sitting on top of anything elevated, gesturing with his hands and arms and sharing his philosophies with everyone in the room. His infectious laughter brought rays of joy to our days.
Jory was soon joined by a younger brother and sister, Ethan and Ashtyn. His relationships with his siblings are special as Jory learned to walk with Ethan, and Jory shared various interests common to overlapping developmental stages. They all loved listening to children’s music, watching musical cartoons, playing with musical toys that light up, jumping on the trampoline, and sitting on their father’s shoulders while spinning, laughing and dancing. Despite the daily quarrels typical of toddlers, Ashy and Ethan also began to express concern and care for him, especially when Jory’s seizures returned worse than before, after 3 years of control.
Through many medication adjustments and further testing, Jory and his family moved from Utah to South Dakota to establish new routines, schools, friends and medical care. At times, it seemed that the right medication dosages were discovered, but his seizures always returned. When he experienced his seizures, he became exhausted and needed rest, usually needing to return to and stay at home. Although there were significant challenges, Jory came to look forward to, and thrive in his most recent special needs program. His teachers, administrators and therapists were also his friends and playmates, and he made unprecedented progress in eating, communicating, and expressions of affection. His small hands sought to grasp ours during family walks. His rough pushes and pulls began turning into tender taps and hugs. These were the final miracles manifested in his life, as his seizure disorder then took him at nighttime back to his heavenly home.
Jory will be sorely missed by the many lives and hearts he has touched. His life will be a monument and foundation on which we can find strength to love and carry on throughout this mortal experience.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to cover funeral expenses at the Venmo account @Summer-Heaton
The viewing will begin at 1pm on March 23rd at 1:00 pm MST at 500 S 600 W, Orem UT 84058. The funeral service will be held at 2:00 pm. This can be viewed online at: https://m.youtube.com/live/5BucaxfjI2I?feature=share
We would greatly appreciate it if you could consider using this linked google form to share any fond memories or pictures of Jory with us: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfWuwEW4XHOPQLOPtT02axzW9_vhdvhmcS0qsLKZemeKdsN7Q/viewform
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