Allison Griffor

 

Universal love for Allison

Family, friends honor 5-year-old killed in home

Allison Griffor would have wanted it this way: to say goodbye, not with dark clothes and crying, but with balloons, brownies and bright-colored dresses.

Classmates, church friends and their parents gathered Saturday afternoon at Crosstowne Christian Church on Bees Ferry Road to celebrate the 5-year-old's life. Allison died Thursday when, with her family and an entire community praying for her recovery, her brain scans failed to show any activity.


Someone fired a shotgun through the Griffors' home on Pierpont Avenue around 1 a.m. Tuesday, while Allison lay asleep in her bed. Several pellets traveled through the front door, through a wall and into the little girl's head.

The search for her killer continues, and Charleston County Sheriff Al Cannon on Friday warned that if people with information don't come forward, they will face prosecution along with the person who fired the gun.

William Griffor said his daughter taught him love and, because of her caring personality, he and his wife, Jennifer, decided to donate her organs. The family said Saturday that Allison had saved three children's lives through transplants, one in Massachusetts, one in Ohio and one locally.

"Even in this terrible time, God's love just shines through it all," William Griffor said Saturday. With smiling photos of his daughter illuminated on giant television screens around the church, he said the family is neither angry nor vengeful.

He called the gathering a form of closure for all the children who knew Allison and needed a way to say goodbye to their friend.

"We will never have closure, but this is for them," he said.

Allison attended kindergarten at Drayton Hall Elementary School, where her older brother, Aiden, attended second grade. His classmates came to say goodbye to their buddy, too, before Aiden, his parents and his 2-year-old brother Lucas return to their home state of Michigan in the coming days.

Little girls competed over who could draw a better heart as they carefully signed their names in markers on an enlarged photograph of Allison where friends wrote messages to her.

"I love you Allison. Kendall."

"We will miss you, Allison. Love little Eddie."

Children sitting at short tables between the church seating crafted cards for the Griffors using colored construction paper and puffy stickers. No one actually took to the podium to speak at the gathering.
This was meant, as Allison's maternal grandfather explained, to be a happy event in her honor.


TO HELP 

To help the Griffor family, you can make a donation to the "Benefit of Allison Griffor" at any First Federal of Charleston location.