Katya Teresa Todesco was a very happy, sensitive, intelligent, kind, loving, playful, sparkling five-year-old bustling with energy. Her joyful spirit inspired people to smile. Her laughter was contagious, and her eyes sparkled with an overflowing and generous love for people and life. Katya was everyone’s best friend, always eager to help her classmates and share her snacks. When volunteering with her mother at a homeless shelter, she readily helped out.

Ever since she was young, Katya had enjoyed gymnastics, music, singing,and dancing. Her precise rhythm was influenced by her dad, Milo Todesco, an active musician/drummer. Katya’s dancing teacher simply said, “She was the best.” She enjoyed going on bike rides with her father and pushing her scooter around the neighborhood. She wanted to be both a cowgirl and a teacher.

On September 26, 2008, Katya was killed in a tragic accident. Her kidneys, liver and heart were donated and transplanted into four people, three of them children. Her heart went to five-year-old Kyle who had been waiting at UCLA Medical Center for a transplant. A year after her passing, the family received a photo of Kyle and his family, and they reciprocated with a photo of Katya.

“Kyle’s and our family and friends know that Katya’s precious heart went from one beautiful soul to another – and what a beautiful difference one single life made,” said her mother Katia.