Donna Cochran had boxed up nearly every room in her Atlanta, Georgia, home — except one. The space belonged to her late daughter, Ansley, and it remained exactly as it had the day Ansley left it, with journals, jewelry and drawers filled with the cozy clothes she loved to wear. Ansley died in 201 8 at 21, after a 19-year battle with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer. What Cochran could not yet bring herself to dismantle was not a bedroom, but a life. “It was hard for me to even go in there,” Cochran, 58, tells TODAY.com. “But I knew I had to take the step.” When Cochran was finally ready, she shared a simple video on Instagram showing Ansley’s bedroom before and after it was cleared. In the caption, she explained that the moment was about far more than the physical act itself. Packing up the room and moving into a new home, Cochran wrote, meant “saying goodbye again.” What followed was beyond anything Cochran had anticipated. Much to her surprise, the simple video began to spread.  What Cochran had feared facing the most became the very thing that brought new visibility — nearly 2 million views on Instagram — to the Ansley Foundation, the pediatric cancer organization she and her husband, Lamar, 61, founded after their daughter’s death. “A funny post will get tons of attention, but a child with cancer? It’s one of those things where people don’t tend to pay attention until it affects them,” she says.  “The supportive comments we’ve gotten — it means everything to us,” Cochran said on Instagram after the video went viral. “The more saves, shares, reposts that we get means that childhood cancer is getting in front of that many more eyes.” To Cochran, the increased exposure to the foundation felt less like chance than design. “I feel like I’m a chess piece,” she says. “She’s just putting me where I need to be.” Cochran believes Ansley is still guiding the family. “She’s right here with us.” The Ansley Foundation, Cochran said, exists to raise both awareness and funding for research, while also supporting families navigating a pediatric cancer diagnosis. “Pediatric cancer brings so many other hardships with it,” she says, including travel, lost income and mounting expenses. The organization helps cover utility bills, gas cards and meals, and provides weighted blankets to offer comfort for children in treatment. At first, the foundation was small. The Cochrans sold T-shirts, pumpkins and Christmas trees, raising money however they could. Over time, the effort grew into a volunteer-run, local organization. In 2025, it had its biggest year yet, raising $250,000. “We’re just going to keep going,” Cochran tells TODAY. “We’re not stopping.” Cochran said she has noticed other signs she believes come from Ansley, glimmers of reassurance that appear when she needs them most. On the day she packed up Ansley’s room, she said, a large rainbow appeared outside the house. “That was her blessing,” Cochran recalls. “She was telling us it was time to move on.” Ansley was small — just 80 pounds — but her presence was outsized. She was, Cochran said, “spicy,” quick-witted and funny. Despite living with cancer nearly her entire life, she wanted to be treated like everyone else. For years, she told almost no one about her illness, waiting until she was about 15 to share it beyond a close circle. She worked, went to school and resisted pity, determined, above all, to live normally. Cochran said Ansley, who leaned on her faith throughout her life, had Matthew 17:20 tattooed on her back. The verse reads, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.’” For Cochran, the scripture captured the way Ansley lived, with resolve, humor, and an unshakable belief that even the heaviest obstacles could be moved. The resolve Ansley carried is the same resolve that keeps Cochran going now. “Just because she’s no longer here to fight this battle doesn’t mean we’re done,” Cochran says. “We’re going to keep fighting this. I just can’t imagine not trying to make it different for the next child.” This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY: I Was Left out of a Dinner With Mom Friends. The Surprising Reason Why Being Excluded Hurts The Irish Have a Day Dedicated for Women to Celebrate After the Holidays. How to Join In Labor and Delivery Nurse Reveals the No. 1 Hospital Question That Could Save Your Life This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less