Joelle Lynae Garretson

Joelle Lynae Garretson, precious daughter of Joe and JaNelle (Eigsti) Garretson, was born November 13, 2022, at Women’s Hospital, Columbia Missouri. After one week there, Joelle was transferred to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where she spent the rest of her life.

The angels came for Joelle on December 7, 2023, after suffering from a BPD (Bronchial Pulmonary Dysplasia) episode, at the age of 1 year and 24 days, at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, St. Louis MO. These episodes were an occasional occurrence which required CPR to recover from, usually soon recovering.

Joelle was born prematurely with multiple complications and was then diagnosed with BBS (Bardet Biedl Syndrome). She spent the first 3 months in NICU. She had a heart defect called AVSD (Atrioventricular Septal Defect), for which she had 3 surgeries, which seemed to be successful. At 5 months old she had surgery to have a trach put in, which she had the rest of her short life. Her underdeveloped lungs were her greatest challenge, which made a ventilator necessary. She was on the heart floor until 3 weeks ago, when she was moved to the PICU floor. 

Sharing the heartache of her parents, are 4 brothers, Jensen 18, Jackson 15, Jordan 10, and Jasper 5, maternal grandparents, Jerry and Shelby Eigsti, paternal grandparents, Duane and Eunice Garretson, 12 uncles, 7 aunts, 51 cousins and great grandmother Sarah Christner.

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. Sunday, December 10, 2023, at Olive Hill Amish-Mennonite Church.

Visitation will be from 2:00 to 4:00 and 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Saturday, December 9, 2023, at the Olive Hill School.

Burial will be in Olive Hill Cemetery.

Arrangements are under the direction of Heckart Funeral Home.