hersmile

Derenale-Betti, who lost her 14-year-old daughter in a tragic accident, shares her journey of grief, resilience, and love through her books, blogs, and courses on hersmile.org, offering hope, strength, and healing to others facing grief and loss. Her laugh commanded the attention of a room and her smile propelled your spirit. In her 14 years she managed to amass an assembly of close friends. She loved to give her friends advice, compliment their beauty and talent she saw within them and share with them her splendor for life. To her family she was an amazing spark plug with the ability to keep the house fun and spirited. Jenna meant so many special things to so many different people. Then on Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 5:03 p.m. the unexplainable happened and the Betti family's lives were forever altered. They took the shortcut home, which was on the path of the train tracks. They sat down to talk and they carved into the railroad ties. Jenna had put her phone on the railroad ties when they were sitting there. A train quickly approached making very little sound. The two kids cleared the tracks but Jenna tragically died while trying to retrieve her forgotten cell phone from the tracks. "I'll never tell you the journey has been easy," her mother, Dena shares. "But we've learned that she is near even though we cannot see her, she is with us even though she feels so far away and she is in our hearts and soul forever."